Mumbai cops nab 4 youngsters in fake garba pass scam

The event was held at Kalidas Natya Mandir. Representation Pic/Anurag Ahire

The Mulund police arrested four youngsters on Monday, alleging their involvement in creating fake garba passes during a Navratri event. The event management company reported an unexpected surge in crowd attendance at the venue, prompting rigorous security checks that uncovered several fake passes. A event was organised by Prerna Raas at Mulund's Kalidas Natya Mandir, starting on October 15. Morya Entertainment secured the contract for event management, including verifying the validity of passes.

Two types of passes were issued: season passes for all nine nights costing R1,800 and single-night passes for Rs 300. Passes were exclusively available for purchase at Kalidas starting from October 12. The doorkeepers were instructed to punch each pass and scan the barcode. A police officer said, "A sudden surge in attendance on October 17 and 18 raised suspicions as they were weekdays.

The organisers became wary and decided to conduct thorough checks." He continued, "On October 19, a gatekeeper discovered that many passes bore only two barcodes, PR2023-0001 and PR2023-0070." After checking the passes, the event management company identified 225 forged passes for a single night. They swiftly reported the offence to Mulund police, registering a case against unknown culprits, resulting in a loss of Rs 4.05 lakh.

Kantilal Kothimbire, senior inspector, Mulund police station, said, "We obtained the pass holders' contact details and interviewed them. We discovered that four individuals - Ganesh Pratap Chikne, 21, a resident of Mulund Colony; Karthik Prabhulal Waghela, 18; Manish Dnyaneshwar Gaikwad, 24; and Hetansh Pravin Chawda, 19 - were responsible for distributing the fake passes. During our investigation, we unravelled their roles, leading to their arrest on November 6."

Karthik's brother had previously committed a similar offence during the 2022 garba event, which went unnoticed. In May 2023, he took his own life. As the next garba event approached, Karthik decided to replicate his brother's modus operandi and purchased two passes from Kalidas. "Karthik used Manish Gaikwad's photocopy centre to produce 240 passes. Once he had the forged passes, he sold them for Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 each to approximately 225 individuals. He had printed an additional 175 passes, which he planned to sell in the subsequent days," said API Ganesh Mohit from Mulund.