Cops caught at silly point

Alleged ticket snatching by cops at Chinnaswamy stadium seems to be the tip of the iceberg as black marketing of tickets continues unabashedly

In spite of caning cricket fans on Thursday fo rushing to buy tickets for the India-England match that they were told were in short supply, the cops seemed to have magically conjured up tickets from thin air and were seen selling the same in black outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium yesterday.


How shameful! A video grab of a police constable selling World Cup
tickets to a fan, near Chinnaswamy Stadium yesterday

According to eyewitnesses, during theu00a0 chaos following the the lathi-charge, opportunistic cops snatched tickets from booking clerks at the counters. As if to fortify these claims, Javagal Srinath, secretary of Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), said, "I think the rampaging crowd on Thursday did not consist of actual cricket fans. I suspect some mischief in this, but apologise to the people for what happened."

Hot cakes
While business tycoons, politicians and celebrities lobbied for high-priced tickets in luxury stands, gallery tickets sold in the black like hot cakes. At the forefront of black marketeers were police personnelu00a0--u00a0 mainly constables, head constables and assistant sub-inspectors.

Tickets priced at Rs 200 were being sold for Rs 1,000, and tickets priced at Rs 1,500, which were the most sought-after, were sold for Rs 5,000 to some early birds. Latecomers ended up paying Rs 10,000 for the same and the highest price that a 1,500-rupee ticket commanded was Rs 12,000.

"It is a shame that the police, who are expected to curb these activities, are indulging in it themselves. I booked my ticket online, but my friends had to pay extra to buy from the cops," said an angry fan. "This is the only time to make some extra money and it came with a lot of hard work, believe me," said a constable unabashedly, after this reporter found him selling tickets.

While the KSCA had issued 1,700 tickets for the police department, the cops demanded more since they claimed that 3,000 personnel were deployed at the venue. An official from KSCA said that the cops had managed to get more than 4,000 tickets unofficially and most of these were sold in black.

The police allegedly sold the tickets in three ways. First, agents with tickets were located in areas like Jayanagaru00a0 and Malleshwaram and buyers were taken to them after they paid the asking price.

Second, the cops were in connivance with the security staff at the gates and buyers were allowed to enter after money was collected. Third and most blatant was the sale of tickets by cops on the spot.

200 Number of World Cup passes KSCA issued to BBMP

The Other Side
Alok Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), who was at the stadium, said "I haven't come across such instances. If anybody is found guilty, we will take action." He added it was up to the Commissioner to look into the issue. Police Commissioner, Shankar Bidari, however, was not available for comment. "Though I have not received any such complaint, I will enquire with the commissioner," said R Ashoka, minister for home and transport.

High Security
Though a few days ago, additional commissioner ST Ramesh said that 1,400 police personnel would be deployed for yesterday's match, there were over 3,000 police personnel at the stadium. Junior police officials said that additional personnel were deployed after the home secretary sent a letter to the city police of a suspected threat to the Chinnaswamy stadium. Mohammed Rafi, PI Mahadevapura, confirmed this ,saying, "The order came from the home secretary and in order to manage the crowds, it was necessary to use more personnel."

Netas jostled for free tickets
While free passes were on high demand, netas were enraged as the supply of the passes failed to meet their demand. Although, the MLAs demanded at least 10 passes for themselves, the KSCA issued only two per head.

The disappointed legislators even raised the issue in the assembly and urged the government to issue directions to the KSCA in this regard, but it did not help as the KSCA was in no mood to relent. However, Siddaramiah, leader of the opposition in the assembly, got three passes, of which his son took two.

While it was a piquant situation for Siddaramiah with only one pass in hand, he asked R Ashoka, transport minister for help. Ashok asked Shankar Bidari, commissioner of police, to give Siddaramiah 10 passes after which he was spotted at the stadium smiling broadly.