Cricket World Cup: Four held for selling fake tickets of October 14 India-Pakistan match

The police's preliminary probe revealed that the accused first purchased an original ticket of the match and then printed nearly 200 duplicate tickets after editing the scanned copy of that original ticket using Photoshop software at the shop of one of the accused, Deputy Commissioner of Police Chaitanya Mandlik of the Ahmedabad city crime branch said.

The Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Ahmedabad city, on Wednesday arrested four youths for allegedly selling fake tickets of the highly-anticipated cricket match between India and Pakistan, which is going to be held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera here on October 14 as part of ongoing Cricket World Cup.

Police said that the suspects had already sold 50 such tickets to a person for Rs 3 lakh.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCB, Chaitanya Mandlik said in a press conference that the four suspects had printed 200 tickets and sold 50 of them to one individual who had also been apprehended.

The accused have been identified as Jaimin Prajapati, 18, said to be the key accused, Dhrumil Thakor, 18, Kush Meena, 21, and Rajveer Thakur, 18. They are all residents of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

They have been booked for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

In a press release, the DCB said that due to heightened enthusiasm for the India-Pakistan match, police have been instructed to be alert to thwart attempts to duplicate tickets and sell them on the black market.

Police said the four youths didn't have any criminal history and were selling the tickets to earn quick money for their hobbies. They were offering tickets ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000.

The cricket match will be played on Saturday, and 7,000 policemen and 4,000 home guards are being deployed to control the law and order situation given the possibility of tensions flaring.