Kochi: The travel agency that complained about the disappearance of Keralites in the Vatican on Tuesday lodged a formal complaint with City Police Commissioner K.G. James in this regard.
Mr James told DC that he told the representative of Seagull Tours and Travels who lodged the complaint that it was their responsibility to produce the missing persons since they had taken them to Rome for the canonization event.
“They cannot shirk the responsibility over these persons. However, the families of the missing persons have not lodged any complaint,” the police commissioner said.
Seagull representative M.K. Biju said that the police commissioner had failed to respond positively to their request, but accepted their complaint.
“He asked us to find out the persons when we filed the complaint and said that we would turn the ‘accused’ if somebody filed a complaint saying that so and so persons were missing,” Mr Biju said.
Mr Biju had said that five persons from their 16-member contingent to the Vatican had gone missing. However, when contacted, Oasis Holidays India Private Limited general manager Aneesh P.
Pappachan said that they took 600-odd persons to the Vatican, mostly under Church patronage, but did not find anyone missing.
The representative of Riya Travels which took 27 persons also said all of them had returned.
However, an insider in the travel sector said that the disappearance of the persons was happening with the connivance of the travel agents themselves and that they charge extra sum in such cases.
