8 arrested for selling IPL tickets illegally in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Days after TOI reported on the rampant sale of black-market tickets during the first home IPL match of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths arrested eight individuals selling tickets illegally for RCB's match against Delhi Capitals.

The arrested are Hemant Kumar (34) and Sai Prasad (19) from Tamil Nadu, Bharat (19) from Jayanagar, B Narendra Kumar (63) from Ulsoor, L Shivaraj Kumar (32) from Domlur, Manjunath (43) from RT Nagar, and Santosh and Manoj Khande (both 28) from Chandigarh. Three cases have been registered against the eight accused at Cubbon Park police station, and investigation is on.

A few hours before the match started late Thursday evening, CCB received information about tickets being sold at inflated prices at the stadium gates and surroundings. Cops in plain clothes swooped down on a few persons hanging around near gates 2, 10, 13, 14, and 21, and at a juice centre inside the stadium. The accused asked the cops in mufti if they needed tickets for the match. They were selling the tickets for between Rs 7,000 and Rs 32,000.

Police seized 18 IPL tickets and eight mobile phones from the accused, aside from 10 complimentary tickets. The tickets seized were for H Stand, Lower Stand 1, Box AC, Qatar Airways E Executive, P3, Lounge, P3, Box 8/D, Box 8/C, and Box H.

Manoj is a vendor with an agency officially involved in selling match tickets. He was selling a Rs 1,200 ticket for Rs 7,000. Manjunath, who runs a Nandini ice and spice juice centre inside the stadium, was involved in selling tickets with face value of Rs 13,000 and Rs 1,500 for Rs 32,000 and Rs 12,500, respectively. During interrogation, Manjunath is said to have admitted to selling tickets in black earlier too.

Online sales through links

Bharat, another accused whose mobile phone was checked, was found to be selling tickets at double the face value through online links. A person named Rahul, known to Bharat, was purchasing tickets for Rs 6,000 from the official RCB website and holding them. Later, he would send a link to download the tickets from the official RCB email via WhatsApp and sell the same tickets.

Some accused were selling complimentary tickets given to an airline company and canteen for up to Rs 10,000, making a big profit. The investigation into the fraud and black market ticket sales is ongoing, the officer added.