Three people have paid a heavy price for hoarding and black-marketing tickets of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. These men have been arrested by the crime branch of Indore police.
The trio was caught in a separate case after a tip-off about the illegal activity. Taking advantage of the online ticket booking system, the trio would book the seats and later sell the tickets at double prices.
“On a tip-off, we arrested Vijay and another person, his accomplice, from Maharani Road area for black-marketing of tickets costing Rs 1600 and Rs 2200, and seized 15 tickets,” said Additional Superintendent of Police Amrendra Singh.
While, the trio seem legit enough to buy and sell tickets for inflated prices, in another case, the crime branch arrested a person called Anil from Bhawarkua area for selling counterfeits of IPL tickets. At the time of arrest, the individual had 15 fake tickets in possession.
Black-marketing, ticket- hoarding and selling fake tickets have been huge menace apart from the illegal betting on matches that takes place at every shady corner of bustling cities.
The police have a torrid time to track and to nab them, especially during IPL season. The nabbed miscreants will likely face a tough punishment as the crime branch maintain a sturdy approach towards corruption.
Indore’s Holkar Stadium is the ‘home ground’ of IPL team Kings XI Punjab. It is set to host three matches for the franchise. KXIP will begin their IPL campaign against Rising Pune Supergiant on April 8 and later face Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 10 and Mumbai Indians on April 20.
The KXIP finished with a with the wooden spoon last season and would hope to put up some inspiring performances this season. The side has received some major boost and has also undergone a few of changes.
This year they will be under the new leadership of Australian Glenn Maxwell. The attacking right-hander will be carrying the responsibility of helping his team rise from the oblivion.
They also did some great business in the IPL auctions. Their costliest buy was the uncapped Tamil Nadu fast bowler Thangarasu Natarajan. The 25-year-old left-arm bowler from Tamil Nadu was bought for Rs 3 crore.
India speedster Ishant Sharma, who was unsold at the auction with a base price of 2 crores, also was roped in as a last minute signing. Apart from these couple of names, the likes of Darren Sammy, Martin Guptill, Eoin Morgan and Varun Aaron will also be wearing the KXIP jersey this season.