Mumbai: The arrest of Roshan Gurubakshani and Akash Kothari has opened the pandora’s box of the unholy nexus of ticket bookings aggregators hoarding the lion's share of the World Cup semi-final match between India and New Zealand to be played at Wankhede stadium today depriving cricket fans of tickets and diverting them to black market.
While genuine cricket fans are deprived of tickets to watch men in blue play live against New Zealand at the iconic Wankhede, blackmarketers have a field day raking the moolah even as BCCI remains a mute spectator taking cricket crazy fans for granted.
Akash Kothari and Roshan Gurubakshani work for event management company
Both accused Akash Kothari and Roshan Gurubakshani work for the event management company, Team Innovation, which organises music festivals, cultural shows and sports events in India.
The police arrest of Kothari and Gurubakshani led the cop to a leading online ticket booking aggregator that was the sole authorised ticketing partner for all BCCI cricket matches in India.
Siddhesh Kudtarkar co founder at Team Innovation and another leading offline ticketing agency Wink Entertainment is under the police radar for the massive black marketing of cricket match tickets.
Tickets Were Hoarded, Sold At Inflated Prices Upto ₹1,00,000
“Both had log in credentials of a leading ticket booking aggregator and blocked almost 70% of the India-New Zealand semi-final tickets which were later sold in the black market for upto Rs 100,000. Scrutiny of their mobile and other digital devices has led to several incriminating evidences of black marketing tickets for several top events in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Goa,” confirmed a senior police official.
According to JJ Marg police official, Malad resident 30 year old Akash Kothari operated from his home selling tickets for Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 on social media apps. The tickets were arranged by Roshan Gurubakshani.
'Cricket tickets were sold in the black market at fourteen times higher'
“Cricket tickets were sold in the black market at fourteen times higher on the actual value of Rs 2,500 printed on the ticket,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Pravin Mundhe.
The police suspects a major racket of hoarding of bulk tickets for all such events by online ticket booking aggregators and diverting the high-demand sporting events to agents for sale in the black market for higher profits avoiding GST and other taxes.
