Ashish Hemrajani, the chief executive officer and co-founder of BookMyShow, and the head of the company’s technical department have received more summonses for the purported black marketing of concert tickets for the British rock band Coldplay. After calling them for interrogation on Saturday, the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has requested that they come before an investigating officer today.
According to sources, both of them are not in touch with the police.
An advocate named Amit Vyas has filed a case with the police alleging that the ticketing platform helped with the black peddling of tickets for the Coldplay concert scheduled for January 19–21, 2020, at Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium.
Mr Vyas has alleged that Coldplay’s India tour tickets, which were originally priced at ₹ 2,500, are being resold by third parties and influencers for as much as ₹ 3 lakh.
He alleged that BookMyShow deceived the public and Coldplay fans, and is seeking a case to be registered against the company on fraud charges.
The police have already recorded Mr Vyas’ statement and have identified several brokers involved in the alleged ticket scalping.
BookMyShow had crashed when the sale of tickets for Coldplay’s India concert began on September 22.
The British rock band, which is returning to India after an eight-year hiatus, had then added a third show to the Mumbai leg of the “Music of the Spheres World Tour 2025”.
BookMyShow for Coldplay’s India Concert.
As the issue of “fake” tickets for the Coldplay concert escalated, BookMyShow stated that it has no affiliation with any illicit ticket-selling or reselling platforms and has filed a police report.
The ticketing company also claimed that it took several procedures to guarantee that all real fans had a fair chance of obtaining tickets to the British pop-rock band’s gigs, and warned against purchasing passes from unauthorized sources, claiming that they could be invalid or counterfeit.
“On September 22, with 13 million (1.3 crore) fans ready to acquire tickets and log in, emotions ran high on BookMyShow for Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India. At BookMyShow, we’ve worked hard to make each fan had a fair chance to secure tickets, capping it at 4 tickets per user across all shows, providing clear, step-by-step booking guides and maintaining transparent communication through all our official channels,” a BookMyShow spokesperson said.
The company said the queueing system was put in place to manage the high demand and while that may have caused a brief delay, it ensured “minimal disruption” for genuine fans. It also pointed out that a third show was added, which got a great response.
“It came to our notice however that unauthorised platforms listed – and are continuing to list – tickets…both before and after the official sale. BookMyShow has no association with any such unauthorised ticket selling/reselling platforms including but not limited to Viagogo and Gigsberg or third-party individuals for the purpose of reselling Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India,” the spokesperson said.
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Source: NDTV
