Team Herald
CALANGUTE: A family of tourists from Surat, Gujarat, were allegedly robbed of their belongings and cash together amounting to around Rs 9 lakh at their rental villa in Candolim on Thursday morning. Calangute police traced the accused within 12 hours and also recovered most of the stolen items. Three persons have been detained in connection with the theft.
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Priyam Shah, one of the tourists, speaking to reporters, said they had come to Goa thinking they would go back with happy memories. “Instead we have had to spend our time visiting the police and the Mapusa court to recover our belongings,” he said.
Narrating their ordeal, Shah said he along with his family members arrived in Goa on November 6 and rented a villa in Candolim for their stay. “In the evening, we went out and came back at around 2.30am, and went to sleep. At around 7am the next day, some robbers entered the villa and stole our mobiles, laptops and cash, altogether worth around Rs 8-9 lakh,” he said.
“We only saw one robber. He entered through the kitchen. My sister-in-law saw the robber and raised the alarm and then we woke up, but the robbers fled. My sister in-law thought the man was one of the caretakers of the villa. Afterwards we came to know there were three of them,” Shah said.
Taken by surprise, the tourists tried contacting the persons they had rented the villa from, but there was no response. “They did not bother to even come and see us,” Shah said. They then lodged a complaint with Calangute police, who registered an FIR. During investigations, police traced the accused and nabbed them within 12 hours. “Only two mobiles and the cash is still to be recovered. The accused are not co-operating and returning the items,” Shah said. Police did not name the accused.
