The Hindu : New Delhi News : E-ticketing racket smashed

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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New Delhi

E-ticketing racket smashed

Staff Reporter

Airline tickets were booked by using credit cards belonging to others

NEW DELHI: A Nigerian and two Nepalese nationals have been arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police on charges of running an international racket in fraudulent booking of airline tickets through the Internet using details of credit cards belonging to others.

The Crime Branch received a complaint from Rahul Roy of SpiceJet alleging that some persons had got e-tickets booked using information of credit cards not issued in their names. Investigations into the records of e-tickets booked through some of the credit cards, mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses revealed that they had been used for booking of airline tickets in the name of different people.

The police zeroed in on a Nepalese national named Kedar as his mobile phone number and e-mail account were found to have been used to book tickets allegedly through credit cards not issued in his name. Kedar was arrested near Rachna cinema on Pusa Road on May 12.

During interrogation, Kedar purportedly disclosed that Kailash Shrestha, also from Nepal, and Akolade from Nigeria were also involved in the racket. Subsequently the police mounted a raid and arrested Kailash in Malviya Nagar. The accused were produced in a city court that remanded them to seven-day police custody. At their instance, the police arrested Akolade at Tilak Nagar on Sunday.

The racket had its links in countries like Thailand and Singapore. They used to collect details of credit cards of others from their contacts in these countries and used them to book tickets of various airline companies through the Internet in the name of their clients The police have so far come across details of more than 250 tickets and 500 credit cards. “They have cheated various airline firms of money running into crores,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Anil Shukla.

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