Tourist from Italy harassed by hotel staff in Puri

Puri: A hotel owner was detained by police for allegedly misbehaving and harassing a lady tourist from Italy in Odisha’s Puri on Thursday.

Fiorella Bizzaro, the tourist, lodged a complaint against the proprietor of Hotel Krishna Residency, Hemant Bhanja with Baliapanda police. After the complaint, the police detained the hotel owner for interrogation.

The untoward incident has taken place in the pilgrim city on Wednesday evening, said police.

As per her complaint, the Italian tourist had booked well in advance for a hotel room online in October. After a hotel staff misbehaved the Italian tourist as she demanded the perquisites and facilities assured on online booking.

This is not new about the foreign tourist being harassed by the hotels in Odisha.

In August 2017, the tourists from Italy, Vincenzo Garoia and Silvana Landolfi, were duped by the website – myguesthouse.com – through which they had booked a room for their stay in Bhubaneswar.

While the website showed them a different room, they found out that the room did not exist at all. Instead, they were put up at a private house at Sisupalgarh, around 13km from the city.

Meanwhile, some servitors on Thursday allegedly thrashed a devotee on the premises of Jagannath temple. The devotee is identified as Krushnachandra Mahakud from Keonjhar district.

Sources said the servitors allegedly thrashed Mahakud after an altercation at Anand Bazar. He has been admitted to Puri district hospital.