MAPUSA
Two desi tourists were allegedly lured and later beaten up and fleeced by touts at a local pub in Calangute, exposing the hollowness of the security of tourists in Goa’s tourism hotspot.
Soon after the news about the disgraceful incident went viral on Friday morning, the police machinery went into an overdrive and managed to arrest two touts and even recover the money stolen from the tourists.
The two tourists from Ahmednagar, Maharashtra who had come to Goa on a holiday have gone back late Friday evening probably with a horrible story to relate to their peers back home.
The incident took place on Tuesday when the tourists checked into a popular resort along the Calangute-Baga area.
Speaking to a section of the media earlier in the day, the tourists said they were beaten up and forced to cough up money through Google Pay for refusing an offer of the touts.
“The touts led us to a pub with a promise to offer Russian girls and other facilities. But when we refused to fall to their trap they thrashed us and extorted Rs 30,000 from our accounts,” the tourists said.
They further informed that the touts took their G-Pay pin and also forced them to reveal their account numbers.
“When we refused to divulge the personal details they beat us up further and took our mobiles,” they said.
The tourists further revealed that they were scared of their life and therefore did not want to register a complaint with the police.
Calangute Police arrested two persons for allegedly fleecing the tourists on Friday evening.
The accused have been identified as Pruthvi Patole of Calangute and Santosh Chavan of Solapur.
An amount of Rs 30,000 has also been recovered from the accused and returned to the tourists who left for Maharashtra on Friday evening.
“We have written to various authorities to close the pub where the incident has taken place,” a police official told The Goan, refusing to come on record.
