Kolkata: A senior citizen’s dream of organising a grand wedding for his daughter turned into a nightmare when he was duped of Rs 7.6 lakh by two men posing as staff at a luxury hotel in New Town.
The Haridevpur resident visited the five-star hotel last Dec to book a venue for his daughter’s wedding scheduled on May 24. There, he was introduced to two persons who claimed to be hotel staff. They convinced him to book the banquet hall and rooms after a tour of the venue.
Purnendu Bikas Saha (62), said: “On Dec 12, the reception desk directed me to Suvanjan Mullick, who introduced himself as an employee of Zone by The Park, looking after banquet booking. I liked the venue and visited again on Dec 23, when Mullick introduced me his superior, Sandipan Das. I booked the banquet and 20 rooms — at Rs 9.9 lakh — and transferred around Rs 3 lakh to the account of OYO Hotels & Homes Pvt Ltd on Dec 29,” Saha wrote in a complaint lodged at Techno City police station.
Saha said it was a private bank’s account at their Gurgaon branch, and the two men issued a proforma invoice against the payment on the letterhead of the hotel. Saha said, based on emails from Mullick and Das, he paid two more instalments. The second instalment of Rs 2.3 lakh was paid to a private bank account of Soumodip Khara at Kasba on Feb 19, and the third instalment of Rs 2.3 lakh was paid to the account of Somnath Ghosh in another private bank at Naihati on April 16. He received a proforma invoice for the second instalment, again on the hotel letterhead, but did not get the third invoice. “I called the hotel on April 19 and was informed by the manager of sales that no booking exists in my name, nor has the hotel received any payment in my favour,” Saha said.
The hotel said a representative of a third-party vendor — Weddingz.in (OYO Weddingz) — had fraudulently used the hotel’s credentials for personal gain. “This matter has been escalated to the regional head of Weddingz.in, and simultaneously, a formal com-plaint has been registered wi-th the local police. As a gesture of good faith and with the gue-st’s concern as our highest pri-ority, we are holding the reque-sted venue and room reservat-ions until the matter is resolved,” the hotel statement said.
Cops have started a case against the FIR-named persons. “The two men are absconding. We have started scanning CCTV footage and are inspecting the bank accounts,” an officer said, adding that they are not ruling out insider involvement.