VICTORYNEWS WEST MANGARAI– West Manggarai Police conducted an investigation into the alleged fraud case of the travel agent and owner of KLM Tiana Liveboat, Monday (23/1/2023).
The KLM Tiana Live Boat sank in Labuan Bajo, precisely in the waters of Batu Tiga, Komodo District, West Manggarai Regency, NTT Province, last Saturday (21/1/2023), resulting in two tourists being injured.
“We have examined 4 witnesses, including the reporter, tour guide and two witnesses who were present at the time of the incident,” said West Manggarai Police Criminal Investigation Unit Head, AKP Ridwan.
AKP Ridwan explained that the police report was received by the West Manggarai Police on Sunday (22/1/2023) evening.
The victims, continued AKP Ridwan, felt they had been cheated by travel agents who did not provide ships with initial information before going on a tour.
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“When they offer it online, they show that the ship is different. Once it is delivered at the new port, don’t use the ship that was submitted initially. Meanwhile, the one who takes care of this is the office (travel agent) of the ship owner (KLM Tiana Liveboat),” he said.
His party has also summoned the ship owner named Bram who is scheduled to arrive in Labuan Bajo on Monday afternoon.
Separately, the victims’ attorney, Hipatios Wirawan Labut, said that as many as 6 tourists who were victims of a ship that sank in the waters of Batu Tiga, Komodo National Park had reported the travel agent and ship owner KLM. Tiana went to the West Manggarai Police Station, on Sunday (22/1/2023) evening.
The six people consisted of two foreign tourists with the initials NT, a Canadian citizen and DE, a Latvian citizen. Meanwhile, the other four people (FJ, KJ, KP and EW) are from the same family from Pekalongan.
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He explained that his party chose to make a police report because the agent and ship owner were suspected of having committed negligence and fraud so that the victim suffered material losses.
According to Hipatios, the alleged negligence and fraud by this tourism agent was due to not conveying actual information to passengers (victims) regarding the ship that would be used for sailing (touring), in the waters of the Komodo National Park, which was planned for three days and two nights.
“Until now, specifically for the agents of four local tourists, they have never provided an explanation regarding the reasons for the differences between the ships in the packages sold and the ships provided during the tour. Indeed, when we arrived at the ships, our clients complained regarding this matter, “However, there was no solution from the ship. Moreover, our client did not know what the discussion (agreement) was between the agent and the ship management, so at that time our client chose to continue traveling,” said Hipotias.
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