A plan to cheat close to 5,000 college students to the tune of more than Rs 14 lakh could well have worked. But the scam, run by a Mumbai resident using the excitement around the Indian Premier League tournament as a lure, was busted after the Mumbai Police Crime Branch picked up the buzz about it on social media.
According to Crime Branch sources, the Social Media Lab of the Mumbai Police, which routinely monitors Facebook and Twitter, picked up discussions about college students ‘volunteering’ for IPL matches in Mumbai and Pune in exchange for several perks.
Simultaneously, the Crime Branch had also received information about similar messages being circulated on WhatsApp.
The Crime Branch then initiated further inquiries into the matter.
A Crime Branch officersaid, “Preliminary investigations revealed that a Mumbai-based agent was recruiting volunteers to help with on-ground operations at IPL venues in Mumbai and Pune. Inquiries confirmed that the organisers of the tournament had not sanctioned any such recruitment. We set about tracing this person. Our inquiries led us to two college students who were given the task of recruiting other college students by the agent.”
Two students were called in for inquiries early last week and on being questioned, told Crime Branch officers that this agent had asked them to recruit volunteers, who would have to pay Rs 300 per head in exchange for free IPL merchandise, a chance to watch the match live at the venue itself and even a nominal daily payment. The agent initially said he needed 3,000 volunteers for matches in Mumbai, but later said he needed 2,000 more as his contract with the IPL had extended to matches in Pune as well, the duo told the police.
The officer said, “The recruitment spree had become such a rage that the agent had managed to convince 4,800 students to pay Rs 300 per head, collecting a whopping Rs 14.4 lakh within a month. A few days earlier, however, he told his two ‘chief recruiters’ that the IPL organisers had suddenly cancelled the contract, and that he was having trouble getting a refund. This sparked off a frenzy on social media. However, there was not much cohesion among the duped students even though the first IPL match was approaching, as no one was willing to go through the process of registering an FIR, for Rs 300.”
Concerned that the matter might blow up right in the middle of the tournament, leading to chaos and potential law and order problems, Crime Branch top brass decided to act immediately.
The agent was picked up last week on Thursday, two days before the first IPL match, and with the clock racing against them, the police gave the agent a simple choice: repay the students or go to jail. Faced with the prospect of going to prison, the agent, who was earlier being uncooperative, relented.
“On Friday, he handed over the collected money to the two students he had designated as recruiters, and they are now dispersing it among all those who had paid. Since he has started the process of returning the students’ money, it was decided not to register an FIR against him,” the officer added.
