In a significant bust, two residents of Delhi have been arrested for allegedly running a nationwide racket that exploited official safari booking websites for major national parks, including Gujarat’s renowned Gir National Park. The duo is accused of creating artificial shortages of permits and reselling them at vastly inflated prices through fake websites.
The Cyber Centre of Excellence, based in Gandhinagar and operating under the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)-Crime, made the arrests in Delhi, subsequently bringing the suspects to Gujarat. The apprehended individuals have been identified as Ajaykumar Chaudhary, originally from Begusarai in Bihar but residing in Delhi’s Badli area, and Arvind Upadhyay, from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, who was living in Delhi’s Karol Bagh.
According to police reports, Chaudhary and Upadhyay created fake identities to book safari slots in bulk through official portals. This artificial scarcity allowed them to then sell these permits at significantly higher rates on sham websites meticulously designed to mimic legitimate government booking platforms.
The fraudulent operation targeted popular wildlife destinations across India. The accused were selling permits for parks such as Gir (Gujarat), Ranthambore (Rajasthan), Tadoba (Maharashtra), Jim Corbett (Uttarakhand), Kaziranga (Assam), and Bandhavgarh (Madhya Pradesh) via these deceitful websites, charging prices far exceeding the official government rates.
During the investigation, authorities uncovered a substantial amount of evidence, including over 12,000 unauthorized safari permits, 8,650 booking confirmation emails, and 10,278 associated PDF files. The accused also actively promoted their fraudulent booking sites through social media channels and online travel forums, creating a facade of legitimacy.