THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The beachside Romeos who lure foreign female tourists are giving a headache to Kovalam police as many of them are getting involved in assault and financial exploitation cases. Teja Pawar, who was arrested at Kovalam for sexually assaulting a Japanese acquaintance on Saturday, was the latest example of Romeos turning predators, police officials said.
Last month also, a youth named Vivek Nath was arrested for seducing and swindling money from five different women hailing from Netherlands and Russia. Two separate incidents of criminals sneaking inside hotel rooms to assault women were reported in the last season. Teja used to lure women to drinks and take some to a private lodge named Swami’s lodge.
“Many tourists might want to have fun but some of them end up becoming victims. Many tourists leave without registering a complaint. This hampers our efforts to identify and book these criminals. Vivek Nath was held just because women victims formed a WhatsApp group and sent complaints on e-mail,” an official attached to the Kovalam police station said.
“By default Romeos on the beach offer help to women tourists even when they don’t need it. These guys might be just good-looking anti-socials,” he added. Officers say that they had recently started a drive, ‘Clean Kovalam’ initiative, to ward off peddlers and anti-socials from the area.
