Panaji, Feb 23 (IANS): Goa Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte on Wednesday announced a Rs 50,000 reward for the state police for solving the case of Japanese tourist looted on a beach late last year by three men impersonating police officers.

The Goa Police on Tuesday have arrested three persons for allegedly robbing the Japanese tourist.

The BJP government in Goa had came under attack from the opposition after the Consulate General of Japan in Mumbai recently issued an advisory to tourists from the country, saying that there have been incidents of fraud and robbery in which Japanese tourists were victims near the Anjuna beach, and asked their nationals to be careful.

Khaunte said that this Japanese tourist had not complained to Anjuna police when the advisory was issued. "However, our police acted on his tweets and solved the case. Goa is a tourist spot and we need to give good experiences to tourists by giving safety. I am happy that the police have acted. I compliment police for ensuring speedy justice to Japanese tourists and hence I announce a reward of Rs 50,000 to them," he said.

"These accused persons are not from Goa, they are from north India. Police have handled this case well," he said, adding a reward is announced to motivate police to act in such cases.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Raju a.k.a. Wasim Khan, 25, Romy a.k.a. Chandbabu, 33, from Jaipur and Tahir, also from Rajasthan.

The police had received a complaint through e-mail and tweets from Japanese tourist Tatsuki Teramoto, who mentioned that on December 28, 2022, some unknown persons impersonating police officers restrained him and stole his credit cards, debit cards, iPhone, Indian currency of Rs 30,000 and Japanese currency of 1,50,000 Yen.

The accused further used the credit cards and debit cards at various stores, causing a loss of Rs 9,43,000 to the complainant.