Bogus match tickets kingpin arrested

It’s a story of men, machine and mean business. After unearthing from Ghatkopar the printing machine allegedly used to print bogus tickets for the recent India-Australia one-day international match at Wankhede Stadium on November 1, a two -member police team led by Inspector Shambhaji Rao Patankar has left for New Delhi to get hold of the machine which was also used to print counterfeit tickets for other matches.One of the prime accused, Delhi-based Jagdish Chandra Pacherwal (34), has been arrested and taken there by the police to identify the machine. The police are also going to take custody of the man who owns the machine.
“This may unearth one of the biggest cricket tickets forgery scam in India. Pacherwal is a big catch,� says a senior officer. “The scam roughly accounts for over Rs 1 crore so far, though we haven’t worked out the exact figure,� says Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 1) Himanshu Roy.
Police suspect that the racket has its roots in Delhi. The angle came to the fore after a tip-off. A police team then went to Hyderabad to arrest some of the kingpins on November 13. “We arrested one Dilip Kumar Pandey from a canteen along with Pacherwal. Pacherwal, originally a driver, spilled the beans. He was the one who came to Mumbai with 1,000 fake tickets. Pandey had arranged his stay at Bismillah Lodge in Dongri,� says Marine Drive police’s Senior Inspector Isaque Baghwan. He says that one of the reasons why many genuine ticket-holders of the Wankhede match could not get into the stadium could be because of bogus ticket-holders.
Police also took into custody in Hyderabad a blackmarketeer, Mumbai-based Ibrahim alias Fauda. Police say Ibrahim and seven others had been arrested in 1999 by the Agripada police for possessing bogus tickets for the Bangalore one-dayer between India and Sri Lanka and also matches to be played at Pune and Vishakhapatnam. He was again picked up in 2001 in Jaipur.
Says an officer, “All the accused initially started their career as film ticket blackmarketeers. They moved on to one-day cricket matches and finally graduated to printing bogus tickets.�
The police have slapped Sections 465, 467, 468, 470, 471, 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code for forgery against the accused.
nirmal.mishra@timesgroup.com