Coldplay 'ticket scalping': EOW records portal COO statement

MUMBAI: The economic offences wing ( EOW ) of Mumbai police, probing a complaint filed by a lawyer over an alleged ticket fraud in Coldplay 's concert, on Monday recorded the statement of Anil Makhija, chief operating officer of Big Tree Entertainment , the parent company of BookMyShow , for four hours. Police have summoned him again on October 2.

The EOW had issued summons to Big Tree Entertainment's chief executive officer Ashish Hemrajani and its technical head, asking them to appear before police on Saturday, but neither of them turned up then. Police said instead of Hemrajani, Makhija appeared before the EOW on Monday. A police officer said Makhija was questioned for four hours and he arrived without any document. "We have asked him to come again with documents on Oct 2."

Advocate Amit Vyas has alleged that BookMyShow and Live Nation logged genuine fans out of the portal and deployed bots to create an artificial digital queue, thereby orchestrating black-marketing of tickets.

Meanwhile, NCP (SP)'s Jitendra Awhad alleged the concert's organisers and "the owner of BookMyShow" are involved in the alleged fraud. "Playing with the emotions of youths is not a good thing."