Thieves cut elderly man’s ears to steal his gold earrings

Two unidentified miscreants attacked a 74-year-old man on Thursday and cut his ears in order to decamp with gold jewellery that he was wearing.

According to the police, the incident took place near Chandwaji area in Jaipur when the victim was sleeping outside his hut.

“The incident took place around 4.15 am when Kalyan Meena (74) was sleeping outside his hut. He woke up when two men attacked him and tried to take the gold jewellery that he was wearing,” said Rajveer Singh, station house officer, Chandwaji police station.

The police said that the men attacked Meena with a sharp weapon.

“They used the weapon, presumably a blade to cut a substantial part of Meena’s ear. They also wanted to take the other earring but fled when Meena’s family came to help to hear his screams,” said Singh.

The SHO added that a small portion of his other ear was also got cut. “The man, who was hospitalised, is stable now. We have registered a case and a search is on for both the miscreants,” said Singh. HTC

The high rate of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on hotels will have an adverse impact on the flow of foreign tourists to Rajasthan, tourism industry experts have said.

Under the new GST regime, hotels that charge over ₹5,000 a night have come under the highest tax bracket of 28%. In addition, tour operators have to pay 5% tax for bookings made under tour packages.

Rajasthan accounts for about 12 lakh foreign tourists every year, which is a large chunk of the total number of foreigners who visit the country.

“Post GST, we will lose our competitiveness in the region and the tourists will prefer other destinations like Sri Lanka and Singapore,” Rajasthan Association of Tour Operators president Khalid Khan told HT. “Taxes have been hiked from 18% to 28% and after including taxes on tour packages, it comes to be 33%, which is a steep hike from the earlier 23%,” he said.

In Rajasthan, there are a number of heritage and luxury properties that charge more than ₹5,000 per night. Khan said that in the October-December season, there are hardly any good hotels that charge less than ₹5,000 per night.

“It (higher taxes) will kill the tourism sector,” Indian Heritage Hotels Association general secretary Randhir Vikram Singh said. “It’s a price sensitive sector and now tourists will prefer other destinations such as Sri Lanka and Maldives,” he said.