13 booked for selling IPL tickets in black

Bengaluru: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Bengaluru police nabbed 13 people for selling tickets to the IPL match between RCB and LSB at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. The police recovered Rs 25,700 from the suspects.

Officials in plainclothes from the CCB’s Organised Crime Wing (OCW) were deployed at gates 13 to 20 of the stadium following information that tickets were being sold in black. The investigators went in as potential buyers to lure the suspects, sources said, adding that the tickets ranged from Rs 1,200 to Rs 6,050. 

"The suspects were caught when they were selling or attempting to sell the tickets they had bought online for almost double the price,” an official said.

Eight of the suspects — Chandan, 27; Thoufiq, 32; Arun, 30; Naveen, 25; Irshad Ahmed, 38; Kishore, 29; Maruthi, 27; and Vinay Kumar Bhattar, 24 — are from Bengaluru. The others — Siddarth, 22; Pruthvi, 23; Yallappa Tarashe, 38; Santhosh Narayan, 36; and Bhargav, 27 — are from Tumakauru, Dharwad and Kolar, respectively.  

The suspects were handed over to the Cubbon Park police, who booked them under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Further investigations are on.