Clash of cultures: Found in closet, foreign couple's Mangalore visit turns sour

Mangalore, April 22: A bitter experience awaited a foreign couple, who had opted to stay at one of their new friend's room in the city, during their maiden Mangalore visit.

Benjamin Charles Ford and Jennifer Marie couple from USA were briefly taken into custody by city police after they were found naked inside the bathroom of a gents paying guest accommodation at Ujjodi, here.

However, they were let off with a warning by the police after realising that they were husband and wife and they had been invited to city by their 'new friend' identified as Abhishek.

Closed Door

Gladson and two other students from Kerala were staying at the room as paying guests in Ujjodi. While leaving the room on Saturday afternoon, Gladson had informed the caretaker of the accommodation that a new student named Abhishek would be joining them as paying guest. He also had requested the caretaker to make arrangements to repair a broken water pipe in the room.

It is learnt that when the caretaker visited the room on Sunday morning, Abhishek, who was standing outside the room, ran away. Surprisingly the room was locked from inside.

The shock

As his continuous knocking went in vain, the caretaker had to break open the door to witness a strange boy, who was later identified as Poornachandra Thejasvi.

The bigger surprise was that he found the door of the bathroom too locked from inside. When he forcefully pushed open the door with the help of others, a foreign couple were found taking bath.

As the news spread, police rushed to the spot. When they conducted a search in the room, they found a few condoms and medicines.

The guests!

Sources said that the couple, who are pursuing PhD, had visited Mangalore last night on the invitation of Abhishek, who had met them recently in Hampi.

“We have not come here with any bad intention. We even did not know that husband and wife taking bath together is a matter of concern here”, the couple was quoted as saying by a police constable on condition of anonymity.

Later jurisdictional Kankanady police clarified that it was a small issue and no one has been arrested. “The couple left for Kerala and we handed over Thejaswi to his parents”, said the police.