In a major development, the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) has uncovered black marketing of IPL tickets for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s home matches at the iconic venue of the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Under the operation, a canteen worker employed at Sri Lakshmi Canteen inside the stadium premises, named Chandrasekhar, has been arrested by the officials.
Allegedly, Karnataka State Cricket Association officials are themselves involved in the illegal selling of RCB matches at Chinnaswamy. The crime branch officials are currently tracing Ganesh Pareekshit, a KSCA member, who has been on the run. He has been accused of being the one providing tickets to Chandrasekhar, asking the latter to sell them at inflated prices in the secondary market, as per reports.
According to NDTV, the black marketers allegedly used Ticketgenie, the official ticketing platform for RCB matches, to make corporate bookings under a private entity’s name and later sold those tickets at hiked rates in the black market. Upon further investigation, the law enforcement noticed a similar pattern being used for all three matches held at the venue in the ongoing season of the lucrative cricket league.
Earlier, 81 tickets worth over INR 660,000 were purchased under the names of Swastik Heavy Engineering and Industrial Automation Consultant Company and Dharani Computers Company. A formal case has been registered against the managing directors of the aforementioned companies for being accused of facilitating black ticketing of IPL matches in Bengaluru.
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Now recently, a further 100 tickets were resold illegally in the market, with each ticket costing anywhere ranging from INR 15,000 to INR 19,000. Collectively, tickets worth almost INR 1,800,000 are said to have been sold illegally. The issue, however, can be much higher, with fans ready to pay obnoxious prices to see their favourite teams and cricketers in action in the biggest cricket league in the world.
