'Very scary and fearful experience': Kerala Doctor, wife gets robbed of passport, money by pickpockets in Italy

Milan: An abroad trip to share educational knowledge turned into a terrifying nightmare when a renowned physician and her wife lost their wallet and a passport in a foreign country to pickpockets in Milan, Italy. 

The Kerala couple in this case is Jothydev Kesavadev, a physician and diabetes researcher, and his wife Sunitha who went to Italy to attend and present their research papers and to lecture at ATTD, Florence. 

The incident happened on March 5 when the couple was entering the Milan Central railway station in Italy to take a train to Florence at 6.20 pm.

Sharing their scary and fearful experience on 'X', Kesavadev said, "A tall, lean African American man bumped on to me. His large trolley bag hit on my right knee and I almost fell down. My wife, out of shock forgot the surroundings and bent down to help me out. When I looked back I saw a woman passing by her and then the woman and the man disappeared instantly. 

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Since we were getting late for the train, we went upstairs to the platform. My wife 10 minutes later opened her handbag and then with a shock realised that her wallet containing the passports, credit and debit cards and cash was missing."

When the couple realised that the pickpockets looted them, they approached the Italian police department and an FIR was registered against the unknown person. Afterwards, they were asked to contact the Indian Consulate in Milan.

"It was not an easy task. After a long wait (police were attending to other cases), we were called inside. The police officer on duty was very kind and considerate and prepared a very detailed FIR. He asked us to contact the Indian Consulate in Milan. We were still hoping that we will get the passport back. He said, it’s very common to have passports stolen in Italy but seldom gets it back." he said.

Further, he adds, "I then checked my SMS and realised within 30 minutes of losing the wallet, the thieves tried using both the debit and credit cards. Fortunately lost only 28 euros. With plenty of CCTV cameras around and exact time and location provided, isn’t it easy to catch the thieves? Meanwhile, our friends had already reached Florence. I called upon Dr Banshi Saboo and informed I may not be able to make it to ATTD. He was spellbound and in utter shock. Dr Banshi Saboo, Dr Rakesh Parikh, Dr Shashank Joshi, Dr BM Makkar, Dr Manoj Chawla, Dr Purvi Chawla, and Dr Amit Gupta, all of them called us and gave confidence, support and directions. We somehow managed to stay overnight in a hotel in Milan."

The next morning, they reached out to their family friend and MP Shashi Tharoor. He described Tharoor's response as quick and powerful. "Immense gratitude to SC. He immediately informed the Indian consulate in Italy and by 9:00 AM I received a call from there."

The caller was Consulate General Shri Atul Chauhan who consoled the couple by saying that this sort of robbery is very common in Italy and directions are given in the Indian Consulate of Italy website itself. Furthermore, he promised the couple an emergency passport. 

"We were shaken to the core and somewhere felt guilty. Probably due to repeated travels over several decades, we were so careless and this is a lesson to learn from! Upon arrival at the Consul, the officers were very courteous and offered us a warm welcome. Within an hour they provided us with two emergency passports and gave us the confidence to go back to India only after the meetings and presentations in Florence". 

Concluding his experience, he said "Dear friends let me tell you, losing the passport and money in a foreign country is very very scary and a fearful experience! I am sharing this experience in social media; whether you are a traveller or not, inexperienced or experienced, could be of some help."

In response to the post of Kesavadev, Shashi Tharoor said, ''Glad it all worked out in the end @jothydev! So pleased our consulate did what was needed so well.''

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