Nagpur youth held with duplicate ticket

Vadodara, Jan 31 (UNI) City police have arrested a youth from Nagpur, after he was found with a duplicate ticket of the India-West Indies ODI match being played at the IPCL ground here today.

Mohammad Afzal Iqbal sheikh was nabbed by a Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) official while he was moving in a suspicious manner near the pavilion at IPCL last evening. He was handed over to the Jawaharnagar Police when a ticket of the denomination of Rs 200 recovered from his possession, was found to be a fake one.

Police immediately swung into action and raided a hotel near Vadodara railway station where Afzal had checked in on Monday along with two others, including his friend and cousin. The duo was reportedly absconding.

Afzal, however, claimed that he was innocent and had purchased the ticket from an unknown person outside the office of BCA yesterday as all tickets of lower denomination had exhausted.

When asked, Assistant Police Commissioner T R Parmar, who is supervising the investigation in the case, did not rule out the possibility of involvement of the accused in a duplicate ticket racket.

Following the detection of the fake ticket, security measures and checking of tickets had been further strengthened in and around the stadium today.

UNI