Monday, April 12, 2010

City chemist arrested for selling IPL tickets in black

A 36-year-old chemist was arrested by central district police for allegedly posing as an authorized agent of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and selling tickets for cricket matches in the black market at five times their original price.

Sources said the accused, Amit Kumar Gupta, who owns a chemist shop in Daryaganj, had a franchise of ‘Easybill’. Police arrested him on Saturday near the Feroze Shah Kotla cricket stadium following a tip-off.

"Amit procured IPL tickets using Easybill facilities and stocked them well in advance. Once the sale had closed at the stadium, he used to sell the tickets to desperate cricket fans and earned huge profits," said DCP (central) Jaspal Singh. He said that Gupta was arrested after the police received a complaint that he was selling tickets for the Sunday match between Delhi Daredevils and Kings XII Punjab near the stadium.

Police said that 28 tickets and a complimentary pass for the match were seized from Gupta’s possession. After receiving a tip-off, police laid a trap and managed to nab Gupta, said sources. A decoy customers was sent to him and when he tried to sell a Rs 100 ticket for Rs 500, he was arrested, said a police officer.

"Gupta never sold the tickets from his shop. He posed as an IPL agent to win the confidence of the people approaching him for tickets," the police officer said.