Eight months after they filed a complaint with the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, five members of a tour group from the city were awarded compensation for the mental agony they suffered during a tour of Israel because of an inept tour operator.
The group of five included the former principal chief conservator of forests of the state, N.V. Ramachandra Chetty, and film producer Anitha Pattabhiram. Now, the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the tour operators to pay each of them compensation of `50,000. The package tour of Israel was organised by Mumbai-based SOTC World Famous Tours in July 2011. Immediately after they landed at Tel Aviv airport, the tour operator took away their passports, and they were unable to go anywhere even in their free time.
Then, on August 1, a member of the group by the name of Tirupathi went missing. SOTC did not inform the local police or the Indian or Israel embassy as they should have done. On August 7, the group boarded the plane for Mumbai. The airport authorities then realised about the missing passenger and summoned the SOTC group leader for questioning. When she was not able to give satisfactory answers, the rest of the group was called one by one and questioned.
After some time, the chief security officer came on board and questioned members of the group for the second time. They were told that the missing passenger had checked in his baggage along with theirs. The security officer then collected all their passports, and their checked-in baggage was removed from the aircraft and kept separately. Speaking to this newspaper, Maltesh H. R., an advocate, said the consumer forum's order would benefit thousands of tourists who visit foreign countries in a group visa through private tour operators.