Three Indian Tourists Rescued from Scam Gang in Thailand

THREE Indian tourists who were lured to Thailand by scammers and held captive and tortured for over six days for a big ransom in Chonburi were rescued by police on July 27. Police, acting on a tip-off about Indian tourists being held and tortured for ransom in a two-storey townhouse in the Nong Prue subdistrict, Bang Lamung district, Chonburi, surrounded the premises. The scammers, realizing the police were closing in, fled on motorcycles just before officers arrived. Upon storming the townhouse, police found two Indian men bound and gagged in one bedroom and a third man in similar condition in another. All three were battered, with bruises on their ankles, indicating they had been struck with hard objects. One victim had spray paint on his body to simulate bleeding. The rescued tourists, identified as Hyman Chu, 23; Ehis, 24; and Mekhid, 26, expressed their gratitude to the Thai police and contacted their relatives in India. They recounted purchasing a seven-day tour for approximately 70,000 Thai baht per person. Upon arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport on July 21, they took a taxi to Pattaya, where they were met by an Indian man on a motorcycle who took them one by one to the townhouse. There, a group of men, believed to be four Pakistanis and one Indian, bound and gagged them. They were forced to use a satellite phone, originating from the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), to contact relatives in India and demand a total of 7 million rupees (approximately 2.5 million Thai baht). The victims reported being deprived of food and water for over five days and denied access to the toilet. Chonburi Immigration Police superintendent Pol. Col. Naphasphong Khositsuriyamanee stated that the operation was launched after the victims' relatives sought help. Tracing the perpetrators was challenging due to the UAE-originated phone numbers, but they were eventually tracked to the townhouse. Authorities believe this is a new form of scam where perpetrators offer cheap tours to Thailand, abduct victims, and extort ransom from their families back home. Police are actively pursuing the suspects to bring them to justice.