Gangtok, May 30: Travel agents of Sikkim will suspend their business for 24 hours tomorrow to protest against the arrest of three of them in connection with a cheating case.

Two tour operators and a driver were arrested on Wednesday after a tourist couple filed a police complaint, accusing them of cheating.

The suspension of business by the operators means the tourists cannot go to Nathu-la on the India-China border and other restricted areas as permits required for visiting these places will not be handed over to them.

“All our members and those of the Sikkim Association of Adventure Tour Operators (SAATO) will stop selling permits and packages for various destinations,” S.K. Pradhan, the president of the Travel Agents’ Association of Sikkim (TAAS), told reporters today.

The TAAS and the SAATO are the two apex tour operators’ bodies in Sikkim.

“The decision to suspend business in the peak tourist season has been taken because of the constant humiliation being meted out to us,” Pradhan said. “Tourism is growing, but we need to address the problems sincerely. If we do not do it now, we will face them every day,” he added.

A meeting is scheduled tomorrow with the tourism secretary S.B.S. Bhaduria to find an “amicable solution”.

On the allegations of cheating, the TAAS president said the particular vehicle taking the tourist couple had developed a technical snag on way to Yumthang in North Sikkim and the tourists could not be taken there. “The tour operators could not arrange a replacement vehicle on time because of the rush. Six out of the eight tourists did not complain, but the couple, one of whom happened to be a judge of a high court, complained to the police of being cheated,” Pradhan said.

The operators had offered refund of money, transport expenses to New Jalpaiguri railway station and a fully expenses paid holiday in Sikkim at any time to the couple, the TAAS chief said. He added that despite all these the couple lodged the complaint.

The tourist couple could not be contacted.