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Man racks up ₹58 lakh bill at Delhi hotel over 2 years, flees
A man defrauded the Roseate House luxury hotel in Delhi of around ?58 lakh by staying for nearly two years without paying his bill. In connivance with hotel employees, he reportedly falsified entries in his account, while staff did not inform management of his lengthy stay or that his cheques had bounced. An FIR was filed on 24 May against Ankush Dutta and Prem Prakash, among others, for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
A man defrauded Roseate House, a luxury hotel in Delhi’s Aerocity, by racking up a bill of around ₹58 lakh after nearly two years of continuous stay but skipping out before paying his dues, police officers aware of the matter said, adding that the accused acted in connivance with hotel staff to pull off the con.
Police have filed a case under Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy based on a complaint by Vinod Malhotra, an authorised representative of Bird Hotel Private Limited that operates Roseate House.
“The complainant accused a guest named Ankush Dutta from Assam and Prem Prakash, who was the head of department of the hotel’s front office department, and others of causing loss of around ₹58 lakh to the hotel. We have registered a case and are probing it. The role of the people mentioned in the case is being verified. Our investigation is at an early stage,” said deputy commissioner of police (IGI Airport) Devesh Kumar Mahla.
HT reached out to Kush Kapoor, CEO of Roseate House, through email, but he did not respond to requests for comment.
The first information report in connection with the case was filed on May 24, based on a complaint by Malhotra in February, according to which Dutta stayed at the hotel for at least 603 days, but checked out without paying his bill. The FIR alleged that Dutta’s long stay was facilitated by Prakash, who was authorised to decide the room rates and had access to the hotel computer system to track the dues of all guests.
It said that Prakash violated the hotel’s norms by not informing senior management about the long stay, and also “forged, deleted, added account entries, and falsified a large number of entries in the account of the guest”.
“The fraud and loss of money came during the audit and internal probe carried out by the hotel administration. The administration suspected that the alleged employee might have received some cash from the guest for letting him overstay by manipulating its in-house software system that maintains and monitors the stay and visit of guests and their accounts,” said a police officer, quoting the complaint.
The hotel also noticed that Dutta deposited three cheques — of ₹10 lakh, ₹7 lakh, and ₹20 lakh — on various dates, but all of them bounced, but the staff did not bring this fact to the notice of the hotel management, the police said.
