Mugging /way laying in the heart of Kualalumpur

I and my wife decided to take a short break and decided to go to Kualalumpur. Air Asia was giving cheap tickets to travel and we rightly thought of using the same. On 20th August, 2014 around 2.45 pm,  We checked ourselves in Sunway Putra Hotel, 100 Jalan Putra which is supposed to be the heart of the city and adjoining PWTC metro station which was convenient to travel economically and faster.

We decided to go for some sight seeing and shopping, after a cup of self made tea and took the Metro to "Sogo" which was just 2 stations away from Jalan Putra PWTC station. We spent some good time going around the shopping area and bought a few clothes from Sogo.  We returned the same way by taking a Metro train and got down at PWTC around 7.40 pm.

The Hotel is just next door as you get down the ramp of the Metro station.  The Mall is under renovation and re construction and as such only a small narrow passage of the hotel is open for public because of which there is hardly any traffic flow into the hotel or coming out of it. The place is isolated.

As I was walking towards the Hotel that had barricaded the entire area with enclosures and kept only a small narrow entrance to the Hotel steps, a car suddenly pulled up and a man who could be in his early 30s peeped out of the window in the front and called me with a paper in his hand.  I thought he was asking for some address, like people ask in India, and went near his car to tell him that I am a Tourist on visit, when he pushed himself back into the car and showed me an Identity card that had a caption "Police" and talked to me very rudely and with authority saying that he was a secret police and that he was looking for some drug peddlers and fake currency racket.  He further asked me if I was an Indian or a Pakistani to which I replied that I am an Indian tourist.  With rudeness and scant respect in his voice he asked me where I was staying?  I showed him the hotel right behind me(Sunway Putra) and told him that he could come with me to the hotel and verify.  He was so impolite and rude that he asked me to show my shopping bag which he smelled and returned back after scrutiny.  Next he asked me to show my purse and I promptly gave him my purse from the pocket without realising the fact that I was mesmerised by then and forced to follow his diktats.  My wife says that she even warned me not to give the purse to him but I did not pay heed to her warnings at all as I was under his control.  He scrutinised my purse and asked me if I was carrying any more cash and asked me to turn around and show my other pockets which I obeyed.  There were some more currency which was distributed in other pockets which I normally do when I go abroad just to escape pick-pockets.  The young looking man then asked my wife as to what was she carrying in her clutch and examined them too.  He gave back the purse and clutch after examining and smelling them like a sniffer dog for drugs and gave it back to me.  He said that he was doing all this for the sake of protection to tourists which, in turn, will protect them and sped past.  I was dazed and shell shocked and probably mesmerised by the man who showed some voodoo looking Identity card that had "Police" written on it.  He showed the card at least twice to me just to keep me under the cloud of mesmerising.  In the whole process, I lost all my money including 4x1000 Indian rupees.

The security guard of the hotel who was barely 30 ft away was not to be seen at all.  we complained to the Manager of the hotel situated on the 9th floor about the incident.  He immediately brought his General Manager and a couple of security men of the hotel and sympathised with us for the loss.  The GM who was also a Tamil offered to send his Manager along with the hotel car to the police if we wanted to lodge a complaint but also admonished us saying that it may take up to 5 hours at the station to finish the formalities and that we could be summoned by the police for further investigation in the following days too, meaning our so called holiday would be ruined.  He further said that Malaysian Police would always come in the Police car and never in Private vehicles. I told him to display an exhibit in the Hotel Lobby for the benefit of Tourists suggesting dos and dont's.

As a matter of consolation, the Hotel staff changed our room by upgrading it to an expensive suite without charges and also sent fruit bowl with compliments from the hotel just to wean us away from the trauma and shock resulting out of this incident.

What intrigues me is the fact that when the hotel is under renovation and when there is no public activity, why should the hotel sell their rooms to innocent tourists?  Even if they sell, should they not inform the tourists that the hotel is under renovation and also warn about possible way laying or mugging by disgruntled elements.  The hotel staff also were of the opinion that such incidents were on the increase in Kualalumpur and possibly planned and executed by some anti social disgruntled elements.  We were totally dis- illusion ed and shattered to learn about these developments and vowed never to go to Malaysia ever. Malaysian government must ensure adequate Protection to incoming tourists and keep them educated about such impostors and way laying by anti social elements lest they loose out on tourism which is already on the decline due to twin  disasters that occurred for MH airlines in the recent past.

All those Indian tourists who wish to go to Kualalumpur are hereby warned that such an incident could happen to them too and be  advised never to part groups and stay together and never pay heed to anyone asking for any help or direction lest you would be robbed and made poorer.  I am still trying to recover from this incident and nightmare and it will be quite some time for it to come to normalcy.