Ek ka teen

Tickets sold in black outside Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium

For any unsuspecting tourist they would have easily passed off as any Games enthusiast in need of a ticket to the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

There were a lot of people near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium who were selling tickets to the mega event in black.


Were trying to buy tickets while the man above was allegedly trying to scalp them.
Pics/Atul Krishan

Though a large number of people booked their tickets and passes still there were a number of people who were looking for a way to get entry to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium just a few hours before the event began.
There was a group of seven people who were roaming around the groups going to enter the venue. They would pose as a ticket-seeker themselves and approach groups who were getting down at the newly-inaugurated Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Metro station.

When this MiD DAY correspondent approached one of the black-marketers and asked for a ticket, he said: "I have only one ticket. I will give it to you for Rs 3,500." The original cost of the ticket was Rs 1,000.
Tickets were also available in the range of Rs 5000 and Rs 25000 from the authorised booking stalls but owing to the huge rush the hoarders were able to make a killing.

Most of the people targeted were foreigners who were coming of the Metro station.

"They just looked at us and start following us to sell off the tickets", said John Grey, one of the spectators, who came to watch the Opening ceremony but refused to buy the ticket in black.

But, there were some people who even bought the ticket at the higher rate.
"This is a big event for the country. We need to watch the opening ceremony at any cost, so we bought the Rs 1,000 ticket for Rs 5,000," said Rohit Sharma.

Some of the foreign delegates even got irritated with the behaviour."What is this? This is scary," said Mei Zu Chang, one of the people, who came to watch the opening ceremony.

"At around 7 pm, the local police received a call about the tickets being sold in black outside the Metro station. A police officer was told to inquire into matter. We got the information that a turbaned man along with four other guys in black t-shirts were selling tickets in black," a senior police officer said.

"However, the police officer sent to the spot did not find anything fishy. Such calls were being received since afternoon at the control room. We got the call finally at 7 pm but did not find anything," he added.