KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: A leading hotel operator has been slapped with a RM1 million suit by a couple who claimed that their belongings had gone missing in a hotel room.

Sawarn Singh and S. Parameswari, of Taman Setapak here, named YTL Hotels and Properties Sdn Bhd as the defendant in the suit filed at the High Court Registry yesterday by their lawyer Nicholas Netto.

In their statement of claim, Sawarn, an airline engineer, and his wife Parameswari claimed to have lost cash and valuables worth a total of RM44,691 during their stay at Vistana Hotel Kuantan which was under the care of the defendant.

They claimed RM1 million general damages, RM44,691 special damages, costs and other relief deemed fit by the court.

Sawarn claimed that at 4.30am on March 8, 2007, he left the hotel room and went to the Sultan Ahmad Shah Airport in Kuantan where he worked.

His wife and daughter were asleep in the room.

He claimed that the room was locked when he left. At about 10.15am, Parameswari and their daughter woke up and found their belongings were missing from the room.

Sawarn claimed to have lost a bag containing cash worth RM21,144 in various currencies, three bank passbooks, a cheque book, a set of house keys, two sets of car keys, a Casio calculator and three Malaysia Airlines tickets from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur.

Parameswari claimed that her handbag containing RM7,000, a Samsung handphone worth RM1,700, four gold bangles worth RM6,000 and three gold chains worth RM16,500 were missing.

They claimed that the hotel staff found the handbag and the luggage near the hotel's staircase.

They said the contents of the bags were missing, except for the passbooks, cheque book, house keys, car keys and flight tickets.

They claimed that the hotel manager had refused to provide the "lock clock" record for their room when requested and alleged that closed-circuit television recordings taken from the hotel clearly showed a man dressed in the hotel uniform holding the luggage about 7.57am that day.