Mumbai police bust Navratri ticket scam

Mumbai, October 17 : Mumbai police have busted a fake Navratri programme ticket scam worth over Rs 30-lakhs and arrested four persons from Mumbai and Virar, an official said here on Monday.

A businessman, Neerav G. Mehta complained to MHB police station alleging that some unknown persons had cheated the organisers of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sunil Rane’s ‘Rangratri Dandiya with Kinjal Dave’ and the ‘Durgavedi Navaratri Utsav Samiti.

Acting on the complaint, a special probe squad was formed by police and during the investigation it was revealed that a gang of persons led by a web designer had allegedly duped over 1000 persons by selling them fake ‘season passes’ worth Rs 3,000 each for the above Navratri shows.

The team cracked and arrested four accused, zeroing in on the mastermind – Karan A. Shah, 29, a web designer based in Virar town of Palghar, who said that he was inspired by a tele-serial ‘Farzi’ for this crime.
The police also swooped on his three other associates Darshan P. Gohil, 24, Paresh S. Nevrekar, 35, and Kavish B. Patil, from different places in suburban north-west Mumbai and seized 1000 fake passes from the accused, 1,000 hologram stickers worth Rs 10,000, laptops, printers, and other equipment, all totally valued at Rs. 35.10-Lakhs.