In a scene that seems to be inspired by a Hollywood con drama, a man stayed at a five-star Delhi hotel without paying a single amount for over two years. The incident is from Roseate House in Aerocity near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. The man named, Ankush Dutta checked in into the hotel on May 30, 2019.
What was supposed to be the check in for one night, turned into his stay at the hotel for a shocking 603 days when he finally checked out January 22, 2021.The hotel has now lodged a case at IGI Airport police station. The man conned the five-star property by colluding with one of the hotel staff, Prem Prakash, who managed the front desk office of the hotel. Prakash made several adjustments in Dutta's hotel bill throughout his stay.
How the con was pulled off
The hotel staff has alleged that Prakash must have received some monetary benefits from Dutta for pulling off the scam. It is alleged that Prakash tweaked the software that shows the check-in and check-out of guests. He also manipulated the financial accounts and adjusted Dutta's bill in other guests' account over the time span of two years. Ankush Dutta's account was deleted, forged, false payment entries were made.
As per the hotel's policy, the front desk is required to inform the CEO of the hotel about any guest whose stay extends beyond 72 hours. However, the rule was ignored in this case. Prakash allegedly hid Dutta's pending dues in the bills of other guests. He also showed false paid bills of other guests in Ankush's name.
"The scrutiny of record of the alleged officials of the hotel revealed that they created several fake and false pending bills to benefit Ankush Dutta by adopting various ways like by removing room nights from his bills, transferring his debits into the bills of other guests' bills, using settled bills of other guests by incorporating his name in the bill, etc," the FIR said.
