Three Mumbai constables held for selling IPL tickets in black

The arrested constables along with another policeman had allegedly snatched the tickets from the member of a cyber fraud racket, who was selling them in black, outside Wankhede Stadium in April.

Officers of the Cyber police station at the city crime branch on Saturday arrested four men, including three constables, for allegedly selling Indian Premier League (IPL) tickets in the black market through an agent. The arrested constables along with another policeman had allegedly snatched the tickets from the member of a cyber fraud racket, who was selling them in black, outside Wankhede Stadium in April.

The three police constables were arrested on Saturday. (HT File)

Police sources said the racket members allegedly purchased match tickets from a website using money from accounts of foreigners, and resold them in black outside the stadium. Officers said apart from the three constables, the fourth man arrested on Saturday was caught in West Bengal. They are on the lookout for the other policeman.

A senior officer said three of the constables are from Marine Drive police station and one from Nagpada police station. Senior crime branch officers refused to divulge details of the arrested accused.

According to police sources, the four accused constables were deployed outside Wankhede Stadium as part of the bandobast during IPL matches last month. They snatched the IPL tickets from a man, who had come to sell them in black. They went on to give the tickets to their agent, Vijay Rajput, to sell them in black and pocket the money, said an officer.

The constables were allegedly not aware that the man from whom they snatched the tickets was part of the racket. Three members of the racket, Akash Gosalia, Keval Gosalia and Manish Monani, allegedly stole ₹2,35,027 from debit and credit cards of several foreign customers of a foreign bank in the city to book IPL tickets through a ticketing website, between March 24 and April 14. They planned to sell the tickets in black outside Wankhede Stadium.

Crime branch officers said the matter came to light last month when the bank received complaints from its Canadian customers that money was being suspiciously deducted from their accounts.

When the website was informed, the officials found that 68 tickets were booked for the Mumbai Indians VS Royal Challengers Bangalore match on April 15 using specific credit and debit cards.

Although the website immediately informed officials at the stadium, the accused had already collected the tickets from the counter to sell them in black. The website officials cancelled the 68 tickets and informed the police.

When the police reached the stadium, they collected 54 tickets which were sold illegally and were informed about Akash, Keval, Monani and Rajput, who were arrested.

Rajput allegedly told the police that the constables had snatched the tickets from one of the racket members and given them to him to sell it, following which the constables were arrested on Saturday.