Lucknow: An interstate gang that created and sold fake IPL tickets using Chat GPT and Corel Draw has been busted.
According to Sushant Golf City police, one of the arrested accused holds a diploma from a polytechnic, while the other, an intermediate graduate, has completed courses in 2D and 3D designing and elevation through YouTube and coaching. The accused sell fake IPL tickets to people online and by working near various stadiums.
Youth from Orai targeted outside Ekana
Pradeep Singh, a resident of Sushil Nagar, Orai, had come to watch the LSG vs. RCB match at the Lucknow Ekana Stadium on Thursday. He purchased two IPL tickets from young men he met outside the stadium and paid 1,000 rupees via UPI. When Pradeep arrived at the stadium gate with the tickets, the staff checked the barcodes. Pradeep was denied entry, declaring the tickets to be fake. Pradeep reported the matter to the Sushant Golf City police station.
Did a Polytechnic Diploma, Two and Three-Division Course
DCP South Amit Anand stated that Sushant Golf City police apprehended the four accused near Dodankheda intersection. All four are residents of Durg, Newai, Chhattisgarh. Among them, Shrikant Borkar, a graduate, runs a car washing business and designing. Nutan Kumar Sahu holds a diploma in architecture from Polytechnic. Vishwajeet Sahu, an Intermediate passout, learned two and three-dimensional designing and elevation courses through YouTube and coaching. The fourth accused, Rajendra Chaudhary, an Intermediate passout, runs a washing business.
Attempted to Sell Fake Tickets in Delhi
Gosaiganj ACP Rishabh Yadav stated that the four members went outside stadiums in other states to sell fake tickets. They obtained photos of original tickets from social media, edited and designed them to resemble authentic tickets. Using ChatGPT, they obtained information about the ticket size and paper quality. Then, they created the fake tickets using the CorelDraw application. The accused had gone to Raipur to watch a match where they purchased IPL tickets in black. They easily gained entry to the stadium through tickets there. They hatched a plan to make and sell fake tickets. On May 4th, the accused traveled by car to the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. They attempted to sell the fake tickets there as well. They were unable to do so due to a mismatch in quality and barcode. They then arrived in Lucknow on May 6th and stayed at a hotel.
Caught for Accepting Money Through UPI
Inspector Rajiv Ranjan Upadhyay of Sushant Golf City Police Station stated that a laptop, 15 fake IPL match tickets, 14 forged tickets printed on paper sheets, a paper cutter, a car, 13 plain paper sheets, a passbook, three ATM cards, two Aadhaar and PAN cards were recovered from the four arrested accused. The accused had used UPI to purchase fake tickets worth 1,000 rupees from Pradeep Singh of Orai. Police obtained the accused’s phone number from this UPI transaction and subsequently arrested them. They primarily used Shrikant Borkar’s bank account to receive online payments. Rajendra Chaudhary and Shrikant Borkar did not make any profit in their car washing business, so they were facing financial crisis and needed money to open a new office.