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Last week when I was live-blogging the incoming polling data from around the country, I didn’t list every South Asian candidate. Manish posted a link to some additional results in the comment section of my post. A race to be on the Fairfield City Council in Solano County, CA turned out to be one of the most dramatic races of the night. The Indian American candidate, Democrat Iqbal “Paul” Randhawa, lost with a meager 5% of the vote. There was drama nonetheless:
As voters cast ballots Tuesday afternoon, Fairfield City Council candidate Paul Randhawa, his wife and son were in court.After confirming the charges against each of the owners of Fairfield-based M&K Travel Services, Solano County Superior Court Commissioner Barbara James told the trio they could post a collective $2 million bail once they appear in court in San Francisco.
They were then returned to Solano County Jail.
“Is my lawyer here?” a confused Iqbal “Paul” Randhawa asked before he was led from the courtroom. He told The Reporter during a Monday jailhouse interview that he hoped to post bail following Tuesday’s hearing.
Randhawa, his wife, Gurdev “Debbie” Randhawa, and son, Manjinder “Manny” Randhawa, were arrested Monday at their Dynasty Drive home on San Francisco-issued warrants alleging fraudulent business practices.
Paul Randhawa, 52, faces 15 counts of grand theft, 15 counts of failing to refund money and one count of conspiracy. His bail is $1 million. [Link]
Damn. Way to kick a man when he is down. Not only does he get creamed in the election, but he has to spend election day in jail with his family. What kind of game was Paul running?
According to the authorities the Randhawa family which operates M&K Travels with offices in Fairfield, San Francisco and San Jose allegedly failed to deliver more than $50,000 worth of discounted air tickets to India; and in two instances clients received refund cheques that bounced.
Randhawa, his wife and son face 31 counts of conspiracy and grand theft, they said.
According to the District Attorney’s Office, Paul Randhawa, if convicted, could face 13 years and four months in a state prison along with a fine of $375,000. [Link]
As you would expect, the conspiracy theories soon followed:
His supporters find the charges suspicious. On the eve of elections, campaign manager Chuck Hammonds remarked, “We didn’t come this far to give up and once he wins of course he will take his seat.” [Link]
Paul should fire the delusional campaign manager who predicted victory.
Ben Sandhu, an officer with the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Fairfield, where the Randhawas worship, said he believed in the family’s innocence. “He was doing his business, he was taking care of his family. We never found anything that he was a bad guy,” Sandhu said. “It was a surprise, a complete surprise.”
Sandhu echoed Randhawa’s earlier accusation, that the arrest was politically motivated. “There’s something wrong somewhere,” he said. “Maybe someone tried to set him up.” [Link]
Yeah Ben. I just hope for your sake that you didn’t buy any tickets to India from Paul’s travel agency.
abhi- this man belongs in politics.. 😉
hehe.
Take a look at the globe in the picture. Did you notice which country which is clearly visible?
Bad luck fairfielders, comming next time with more promises
I am one of the dozens of victims that Paul, and his wife defrauded for over $1100. Cash payment for a ticket to Kerala that was never issued, nor refunded. Once one learns that how he rips off unsuspecting clients:(90% of customers are NRI, Indian American college students, immigrants, etc), you would not pity the guy one bit that he lost the election and that he has been arrested.
Hi,
I had a friend who also booked through M&K Travels. He was made to run from pillar to post to get his tickets which he luckily got only a week before his actual flight.
Wronskian
Hi all,
I’d like to add here that my husband was to come to India to get engaged and married to me and had booked tix with the infamous M&K travels, and everyone around us knows what kind of trauma he and I had to go through when at the last moment, we came to know that the tickets never existed with the airlines, for we had been duped. We had to book expensive tickets though this time through Expedia and he finally came to India. Hopefully this vicious ‘politician'(who never cared to return the 1400 dollars) realizes now that he can’t dupe people for long…for what goes around comes around too!
We’ve paid $3800 to this rogue for 3 tickets. My wife is supposed to travel this coming Saturday to India. When we called Singapore airlines this morning to reconfirm the reservation, they said there was no reservation with that name and one was never made. The E-Ticket numbers provided by M&K Travel were fake.
Additional Links:
http://www.path2usa.com//experiences/viewexp.php?topic=15&PHPSESSID=28f334c017ff221908fa16a1c8c5fbc4
http://www.immihelp.com/experience/readentries.do?category=41
I think Paul and his family is stupid and doesn’t have bit of sense though they are successful cheating so many with hundreds of thousands of dollars. I got cheated for nearly $3000 and still hopelessly waiting for my money back.
Surprisingly he is busy in this business from past few years and his practice of fraud peaked in 2004-2005. No one with right sense of mind would do this if he is planning to run for elections.