The district consumer forum has asked American Express Bank to pay damages amounting to about Rs 23 lakh to passengers whose travellers cheques (TC) were stolen from their travel agent 10 years ago.

In 1998, 49 people hired Cosmic Travels as their travel agent to go for Haj. The passengers handed over their passports, visas, other documents and TCs worth Rs 25,500 each to Ebrahim Kolsawala, a partner of Cosmic Travel for submission to the Royal Saudi Embassy in Delhi.