The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday said it was looking into the case of 22 children from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi who have gone missing in France, PTI reported.
The investigative agency said the children went missing after three travel agents took them to France last year, promising them coaching in rugby. The CBI said the agents charged the parents Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh to take 25 children abroad. In their visa applications, the agents said the children were being taken for a rugby training camp in Paris.
“The group left from the Delhi airport for Paris on the basis of an alleged invitation from the French Federation,” CBI Spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said, adding that the students attended a rugby training camp for a week, but the agents cancelled their return tickets after that.
However, two children realised something was wrong and managed to return to India, Dayal said.
The agents allegedly abandoned the others at a local gurudwara. The children went missing from there, CBI officials said. The French Police arrested one of them and informed the Interpol, who alerted the CBI, the PTI report said.
The CBI registered a case after conducting an inquiry. It also searched the offices of the travel agents, Lalit David Dean, Sanjeev Roy and Varun Choudhary, and seized documents.
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