Fake website dupes over 200 children of ₹1 lakh on pretext of kabaddi trials at Noida

Children from various districts of Uttar Pradesh turned up at the Noida Stadium on Monday morning to participate in the ‘trials’ that had been scheduled for November 12-15, 2018. When the children enquired about the trials, they realised that nothing was scheduled at the stadium.

More than 200 children were duped of ₹500 each in the name of registration fee after they signed up for the trials of a Kabaddi tournament on a website that later turned out to be a fake.

Children from across Uttar Pradesh turned up at a Noida stadium on Monday, November 13, 2018, to participate in the trials of a kabaddi tournament that turned out to be a fraud. (Sunil Ghosh / HT Photo)

The incident was reported when children from various districts of Uttar Pradesh turned up at the Noida Stadium on Monday morning to participate in the ‘trials’ that had been scheduled for November 12-15, 2018. The winners had been promised entry to the ‘National Junior Professional Kabaddi Tournament’. However, when the children enquired about the trials, they realised that nothing of that sort had been scheduled at the stadium.

“We came across the website ‘www.kbdjuniors.com’ almost a month ago while looking for kabaddi tournaments. There was a registration form along with a ₹500 fee. After completing formalities, we received a confirmation through email. There was a contact number listed as well and we spoke to a representative. There were options to choose the trial venues and we opted for Noida,” 17-year-old Prashant Kajla, who had participated in the under-17 category, said.

He travelled from Meerut along with four other players, including his younger brother. He had missed his monthly exams at school to participate in the tournament. “My immediate concern right now is what my parents will say once they find out about this. I have been dodging their calls all morning,” Kajla said.

Participants said the website offered ₹27 lakh as prize money for the winning team along with an entry to two-month training camp to participate in other tournaments.

“The website has been shut now. But they also have a YouTube ad that is still working. The phone number is also switched off,” Nikhil Jatoun, another participant, said.

He said the site had competitions in only two categories— under-15 and under-17. “They had given us multiple options to choose the city we can go to for the trials such as Noida, Lucknow, Pune, Patna, Sonepat, Bengaluru etc. We chose Noida due to its proximity to our place of residence,” Jatoun, a resident of Aligarh, said.

Children from Meerut, Hapur, Bijnor, Ghaziabad and Aligarh had turned up at the Noida Stadium. After the participants realised that they had fallen prey to fraud, they protested outside the stadium and approached the police.

Police suspect that thousands of children all over India may have fallen prey to the fraud. “They have given us a written complaint and the cyber cell will look into it,” Sudha Singh, superintendent of police (city), said.

Cyber cell officers said they will try to trace the website and conduct a thorough investigation in the matter.