- Four men were arrested in Delhi for selling fake IPL tickets including complimentary passes
- Complimentary IPL passes marked "Not for Sale" were sold for Rs 20,000 each
- Tickets were sold to online betting operators, criminals, and scalpers posing as DDCA representatives
Three men arrested near Delhi Gate in the old quarters of the national capital were passing themselves off as authorised representatives of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).
They were carrying 54 Indian Premier League (IPL) match tickets, including 33 complimentary passes stamped "Not for Sale", but being sold for Rs 20,000 apiece. A fourth accused has since been arrested, and the trail now leads inside the DDCA itself.
The Delhi Police's Crime Branch arrested the first three on May 8 after laying a trap near Delhi Gate. The accused have been identified as Mukeem, 35, from Moradabad; Gufran alias Sajid, 36, from Okhla, and Md. Faisal, 38, from Seelampur.
They had been operating across multiple IPL venues, flying between cities as the tournament moved. A fourth accused, Pankaj Yadav, has subsequently been arrested.
The operation was led by inspectors Man Singh and Sunder Gautam of the anti-rowdy squad cell (ARSC), Crime Branch, under the supervision of ACP Sanjay Kumar Nagpal.
During interrogation, Pankaj Yadav alleged the complimentary passes which were marked "not for sale" and tickets were taken from the DDCA through Rakesh Rajan Singh alias RR Singh, the DDCA's General Manager and CEO, and his personal assistant, also named Rakesh.
The police are looking for a fifth accused, identified only as Ajay, who was found selling tickets outside Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium, including complimentary passes sourced from DDCA staff. He was spotted as recently as yesterday, selling tickets for the Lucknow match.
Ajay already carries multiple cases in Delhi for black-marketing movie tickets at cinema halls and for scalping tickets during the Commonwealth Games. His operations extend to any major ticketed event across India and are conducted in collusion with ticketing platforms and stadium staff, the police said.
The complimentary passes that carry explicit "Not for Sale" markings were sold at Rs 20,000 each, and regular tickets went for roughly double the printed price, with rates adjusted for match popularity and buyer profile.
The accused were not merely scalping; they had been giving premium tickets to individuals involved in online live betting and satta operations inside stadiums, as well as to what the police statement described as "high-profile pickpockets and other criminal elements."
To establish credibility with buyers, they projected themselves as authorised event management and cricket administration representatives.
This was not a first offence for at least two of the original three. Gufran faces a 2011 cheating case from Nand Nagri. Faisal has cases from 2016 and 2020 including of cheating and theft across Delhi and Punjab. Criminal cases related to ticket blackmarketing have previously been filed against the group in Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana.
A first information report (FIR) has been filed with the Crime Branch police station under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). All the four arrested accused are in custody. RR Singh and his PA Rakesh's role is under investigation.
