Four people were arrested with 200 fake tickets for the upcoming India-Pakistan cricket World Cup match from the Bodakdev area of Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

According to the officials, the arrest was made by the crime branch. Three of the four accused are 18 years old, while the fourth accused is 21, as reported by PTI.

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The India vs Pakistan World Cup match is scheduled for October 14 in Ahmedabad’s Motera district at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Chaitanya Mandlik of the Ahmedabad city crime said that the accused printed nearly 200 duplicate tickets from the original ticket by editing the scanned copy using Photoshop software at the shop of one of the accused.

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“The police have recovered all 200 tickets, including the 50 that were sold by the youths using their connections on social media,” Mandlik said.

The accused, identified as Jaymin Prajapati, Dhrumil Thakor, and Rajvir Thakor (all 18) and Kush Meena (21), belong to different parts of either Ahmedabad or Gandhinagar, he added.

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Giving details of the case, Mandlik said, “After learning that tickets for the India-Pakistan match are in high demand and can be sold at a high price to cricket fans, Prajapati, who lives near the stadium, came up with the idea of selling duplicate tickets on the black market.”

“He then roped in Rajvir and Dhrumil to execute his plan and approached Meena, who owns a print shop in the Bodakdev area. When Meena said an original ticket was needed to execute the plan, Dhrumil purchased one ticket and gave it to Meena, who then created fake digital copies from the scanned file of the original ticket on his computer using Photoshop,” the official stated, adding that the accused purchased a color printer and printed nearly 200 duplicates, identical to the original one.

Using their connections on social media, Prajapati and Rajvir initially sold some tickets. When the demand for them started to rise, they printed more tickets and sold them to cricket fans for prices ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000 per ticket, Mandlik said.

“After learning about this illegal activity, our team raided Meena’s shop on Tuesday and arrested all four accused with unsold tickets and other materials, including defective print-outs of tickets, printers, computers, and mobile phones. We also recovered 50 tickets that were collectively sold by the accused for Rs 3 lakh to cricket fans,” he said, PTI reported.

A case has been filed against the four accused in the incident on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, breach of trust, and forgery, among others.

(With PTI inputs)