PATTAYA, Thailand — Thai police have successfully rescued three Indian men who were held captive and tortured for a week by a transnational kidnapping syndicate in Pattaya. The victims were lured to Thailand under the guise of an inexpensive holiday package before being abducted and held for a multi-million baht ransom.

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The rescue operation was executed at 4:00 p.m. on Monday at a two-story residence on Map Tato Road in the Nong Prue subdistrict. Upon entering the property, officers discovered the three men, aged between 23 and 26, locked inside two separate bedrooms. The victims were found with their limbs and mouths tightly bound, suffering from severe bruising, particularly around their ankles, which had been repeatedly struck with hard objects by their captors.

According to police investigations, the men had each paid approximately 70,000 baht for what they believed was a legitimate seven-day tour package to Thailand. They arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 5:00 a.m. on July 21 and subsequently hired a taxi to travel to Pattaya. Upon reaching a designated meeting point at a fast-food restaurant along Sukhumvit Highway in Nong Prue at 7:00 a.m., an Indian national arrived on a motorcycle and transported the victims one by one to the hideout.

Once inside the house, the victims were overpowered by a gang comprising four Pakistani nationals and one Indian man. The captors subjected the men to daily physical abuse to extort money from their families back in India. The victims reported being hung face down and beaten on the ankles, while being deliberately denied food and access to basic sanitation. The syndicate demanded a combined ransom of 7 million Indian rupees, equivalent to roughly 2.4 million baht, threatening further violence if the demands were not met.

The breakthrough in the case came after the victims’ relatives in India contacted Thai authorities to report the kidnapping and urgently request assistance. Police Colonel Napatpong Kositsuriyamanee, the Chon Buri immigration chief, noted that the kidnappers attempted to mask their location by using a mobile phone number registered in Dubai. Despite these evasion tactics, Thai detectives successfully tracked the digital footprint and communications to the Nong Prue residence. However, the suspects managed to narrowly escape on motorcycles just moments before law enforcement breached the property.

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Authorities have highlighted this incident as a stark warning about the dangers of unverified, unusually cheap tour packages, which criminal syndicates are increasingly using to lure unsuspecting tourists into extortion and kidnapping schemes. Police are continuing their manhunt for the fleeing suspects and are expected to coordinate with international law enforcement agencies to dismantle the broader criminal network.

-Thailand News (TN)