Man freeloads for two years at Delhi five-star hotel, FIR filed over loss of ₹58 lakh

A five-star hotel here has alleged to have suffered a loss of Rs 58 lakh when one of its guests colluded with some hotel staff and stayed for almost two years without making any payment.

According to an FIR, a five-star hotel in New Delhi allegedly suffered a loss of ₹58 lakh after one of its guests enjoyed a two-year stay in a room without paying any room charges, by colluding with some hotel staff.

The hotel, Roseate House in Aerocity near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, has lodged a case at IGI Airport police station.

According to the FIR lodged recently by Vinod Malhotra, an authorised representative of Bird Airports Hotel Private Limited, which operates Roseate, guest Ankush Dutta stayed for 603 days which cost Rs 58 lakh but checked out without paying a single penny. The FIR alleges that Prem Prakash, head of Front Office Department of the hotel, who was authorised to decide room rates and had access to the hotel computer system to track dues of all guests, allowed Mr. Dutta’s long stay violating the hotel norms.

The hotel management suspects that Mr. Prakash might have received some cash amount from Mr. Dutta for letting him overstay by manipulating its in-house software system that maintains and monitors stay/visit of guests and their accounts.

“A criminal conspiracy was hatched by guest Mr. Ankush Dutta along with some known and unknown hotel staff, including Mr. Prem Prakash with a motive to gain wrongfully and deprive the hotel of its rightful dues,” the FIR said.

“In pursuance of the said conspiracy, the alleged staff of the hotel forged, deleted, added accounts entries and falsified a large number of entries in the account of the said guest Ankush Dutta in the Opera software system of the hotel,” it added.

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