IT’S not uncommon to find cheaters or scammers among those who don the skull cap for their sense of piousness will precede them to the point of easily deceiving their prey.
Such is the furore raised as the owners of Hejira Travel & Tour Holdings Sdn Bhd – both aged 31 – were nabbed by police from the Commercial Crime Investigation Department at 7pm last night (Jan 15).
This followed a police report in Sepang regarding an umrah (mini haj) scam involving the company by a 39-year-old woman after the private sector employee suffered a loss of RM11,000 and was stranded while attempting to perform umrah on Jan 14, according to Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan.
Earlier, a news article by news portal MalaysiaGazeette depicts victims of the company’s umrah scam flocking its premises in Sepang, Selangor yesterday (Jan 15).
With the police having opened an investigation under Section 420 of the Penal Code, a total of seven police reports have been filed by victims involving estimated losses of RM100,000 in Selangor.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the company began operations in 2022 but relocated to a three-story premises in Sepang, Selangor, in October 2024,” revealed Hussein.
“The suspects’ modus operandi involved advertising umrah packages on the TikTok platform and engaging with agents appointed by the company to deceive victims. We’ve seized several computers, passports and related documents for investigation purposes.”
At the time of writing, Malay language daily Sinar Harian reported that the police have obtained a three-day remand order beginning today (Jan 16) from the Sepang Magistrate’s Court against the couple following the controversy of failing to fly would-be pilgrims to Mekkah.
In fact, MalaysiaGazette further reported that the police had also arrested the company’s managing director Mohd Syahril Alias who was accused of failing to fly more than 300 umrah pilgrims to the holy land.
Meanwhile, both the husband-and-wife owners were trolled on social media “for not having showed up in office for days while their staff were left alone handling victims of their scam”.
Owner Hejira lepas bebas Staff Hejira pulak yang dah berhari-hari tak balik ada di ofis layan jemaah yg kena scam. Family staff kenapa tak pergi buat report polis. Tak salahkan jemaah yg dari semlm berkampung di Hejira HQ. pic.twitter.com/tq5HZNwEIz
— ChomBie 🇵🇸 (@ChomBieTanjung) January 14, 2025
Many commenters lambasted the smiling kopiah-(skull cap)-clad male owner and his wife for their deceit which is deemed “extremely sinful” as it entailed cheating both the money and good intention of the would-be pilgrims in wanting to fulfil God’s command. – Jan 16, 2025
Main image credit: Hejira Travel & Tours Holdings Sdn Bhd/Facebook
