Japanese drugged, looted in Varanasi

Lucknow: A Japanese tourist, Akihiro Tanaka, was allegedly drugged and looted by an unidentified man who posed as a tourist guide.

According to police reports, Mr Tanaka arrived in Varanasi from Agra on Thursday morning. He went to Sarnath where he met a man who gave his name as Rameez Khan and claimed he was a tourist guide.

The ‘tourist guide’ took Mr Tanaka around various sites in Sarnath and late in the evening, the two went to the Ghats along the Ganga river.

Mr Tanaka told the police that the guide offered him a soft drink and he lost consciousness after drinking it.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself in Shastri Nagar under the Sigra police station area while his bag containing visa, passport, 50,000 Japanese yen,  Rs 2,000 and ATM cards of a Japanese bank was missing. He reached the Sigra police station and lodged a complaint on Thursday night. The DGP office in Lucknow said on Friday that strict action would be taken against the accused and directives had been sent to ensure that such incidents do not recur.