COIMBATORE: A leisure trip to Thailand turned into a nightmare for a Coimbatore-based couple as they were held hostage by their tour operator, who demanded `60,000 to allow them return home. However, the timely intervention of former Coimbatore Police Commissioner C Sylendra Babu helped the couple and 110 other Indian tourists who had taken a package offered by the tour operator. Babu is presently posted in Chennai as Inspector General of Police, North Zone. According to the tourist’s relatives, a local agent in Thailand, with whom the Bangalore agency had a tie-up, evicted the tourists from their hotel rooms on Sunday morning. The agent refused to hand over the return tickets claiming that the Bangalore agent had not paid the agreed amount to him. “My parents were made to stand on the roads even as it was heavily raining there. The agents threatened to keep them hostage unless they paid `30,000 each,” said V Bala Bharathi, daughter of B Vishwanathan who had gone to Thailand with his wife V Dhanalakshmi. She said her parents were not provided with proper food by the Thailand agent since the time they reached, claiming the Indian operator had not paid him for food. Fortunately, Vishwanathan had Babu’s phone number since the time he was the Police Commissioner here. “I received a call from Vishwanathan early in the morning. He said he and other Indians were stranded on the road. Immediately, I got in touch with the Thailand agent and asked him not to victimise innocent tourist for the fault of the Indian tour agency. I assured them that the police will help them get back the money from the Indian agency and requested them to register an online complaint with the Coimbatore city police,” Babu told the Express. Following this, the Thailand agency agreed to hand over the return tickets to the Vishwanathan and the fellow Indian tourists.
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