Kolkata Police Investigate Ticket Mismanagement for India-South Africa Match

The Kolkata police served Roger Binny, the president of the BCCI, a notice on Saturday night requesting pertinent information and documentation regarding the ticket sales for Sunday's India-South Africa match at Eden Gardens.

Shankha Shubhra Chakrabarty, the joint commissioner of crime for the Kolkata police, stated that the president has been requested to provide, or designate, any capable individual within the organization, the documentation pertaining to the sale and distribution of tickets by the BCCI by November 7.

When this newspaper tried to reach Binny by phone, he did not answer.

Bookmyshow.com, the official website for selling World Cup tickets, and the Cricket Association of Bengal have been accused of mismanaging tickets for the India-South Africa match at Eden Gardens on Sunday. As a result, Kolkata police have opened a case at Maidan police station.

Police have had the opportunity to question both Bookmyshow.com and CAB officials through Friday.

Officials from Bookmyshow.com claim that they were only provided 18,000 tickets for sale, all of which were sold out. According to CAB officials, 25,975 tickets had been sold or distributed to different clubs. However, the status of the roughly 20,000 tickets that are still supposed to be free tickets is unclear, according to a senior Kolkata police officer.

This newspaper was informed by a CAB official that the BCCI kept track of the number and distribution of free tickets. "It is unrelated to the CAB," he declared.

According to the police, specific documents have been requisitioned from the BCCI in order to learn about the protocol that is being followed in the distribution and allocation of tickets.

Thousands and thousands of Kolkata residents have been lamenting that they were not able to buy tickets for the South Africa vs. India game.

Many people complained that they were asked to wait in line or told that all tickets were sold out when they attempted to book a ticket online through Bookmyshow.com.

While this was going on, Kolkata police discovered several India-South Africa tickets were being sold at a premium, raising questions about how black marketeers were able to obtain the tickets while regular people were unable to.

Police seized 118 match tickets, which were being sold for a premium, up until Sunday.

In relation to the seven cases that have been reported, over twenty people have been taken into custody.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.