The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested four residents of Chhattisgarh for allegedly cheating cricket fans by selling fake match tickets outside Ekana Stadium in Lucknow during the Indian Premier League (IPL), officials said.
The accused used original ticket images sourced from social media to create counterfeit tickets through the CorelDRAW application, they said, adding they had also travelled to and other cities to sell fake tickets during cricket matches in the past.
In a statement, police identified those arrested as Shrikant Borkar (30), Nutan Kumar Sahu (28), Rajendra Chaudhary (29), and Vishwajeet Sahu (22).
Police said Shrikant and Rajendra were into car wash business while Nutan and Vishwajeet worked as designers. Shrikant was also into the designing work, they informed.
According to police, Pradeep Singh, a resident of UP’s Jalaun district, filed a complaint at Sushant Golf City police station stating he came to Ekana Stadium to watch an match when he purchased two tickets from unidentified persons outside the venue and paid Rs 1,000 online through the UPI ID shared by them.
Police said when Pradeep reached the stadium gate, the ticket-checking staff found the tickets to be fake, following which a case was registered on his complaint.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a location in and arrested the accused at Dodhan Khera crossing on Thursday. During questioning, Rajendra Chaudhary told police that financial hardships and the need to raise money to open a new office led him, Vishwajeet Sahu, and Nutan Sahu to devise a plan to create and sell fake IPL tickets.
Vishwajeet Sahu revealed that he works in 2D/3D and elevation designing, skills he acquired through YouTube and coaching, police said.
The accused told police that the idea of selling fake tickets occurred to them after they had earlier bought black-market tickets for a match in Raipur and successfully gained entry into the stadium. Encouraged by that experience, they decided to create counterfeit tickets, which Vishwajeet Sahu designed using the CorelDRAW application, the officials said.
Police claim to have recovered fake match tickets, mobile phones, digital evidence linked to online transactions, and the vehicle used in the crime from the accused.
