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You can check out anytime you like/But you can never leave. Remember these iconic lines from the 1977 Eagles song Hotel California?
Now let’s meet Ankush Dutta, a resident of Guwahati in Assam, who checked in at a five-star hotel near Delhi’s airport on 30 May 2019 and booked a room for one night. He was supposed to check out the next day.
But guess what, he did not leave. Not until he spent over 600 days there. And when he did check out, he did not pay a single buck for his stay, food, beverages or any other services he used at the hotel. At least these are the allegations made by VK Malhotra, representative of Bird Airport Hotels Pvt Ltd in a complaint registered at the IGI Airport police station on 24 May 2023.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against Dutta and known and unknown staff of the hotel under sections 408 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery of documents), 471 (use of forged documents knowingly) and 120B (party to criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The police are investigating the matter and trying to establish a motive. No arrests have been made so far in the case.
This is the story of Ankush Dutta, who allegedly colluded with the staff of The Roseate House – a boutique hotel located at Aerocity near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi – stayed there for 603 days and left without clearing his dues of over Rs 58 lakh.
How did Dutta manage to dupe a five-star hotel in the national capital? The Quint pieces together the story on the basis of the allegations levelled by the complainant in the FIR:
How Did It Begin?
On 30 May 2019, Dutta booked a room at The Roseate House for a night. He had booked room no. 437 with a tariff of Rs 6,355 plus taxes, and submitted a copy of his passport as his identity proof.
He was supposed to check out on 31 May but kept on extending his stay till 22 January 2021. All this while, Prem Prakash, who was heading the front office department of the hotel, was taking care of Dutta’s stay and outstanding bills.
As per the FIR, Prakash was also responsible for maintaining Dutta’s account on the Opera software system of the hotel – which is used to monitor the stay/visit of their guests and their accounts. Other staff members had limited access to Dutta’s accounts.
On 31 May 2019, Dutta checked out of room no. 437 and checked in to room no. 508, where he stayed for 221 days until 7 January 2020. As per the FIR, even though the records showed that he had checked out, he stayed in room no. 508 till 15 March 2020 – another 68 days.
The FIR alleges that he then checked in to room no. 538, where he stayed for 313 days.
During Dutta’s entire stay of 603 days, Prakash never disclosed his outstanding dues to the management, alleges the complainant in the FIR, accessed by The Quint. His father Apurba Dutta also stayed at the hotel and he too did not pay his dues.
How Did He Do It?
Prakash did not follow the SoP that requires the staff to send daily reports of long-staying guests whose outstanding dues exceed Rs 50,000. The first time Dutta’s name was mentioned in the paymaster (PM) report was on 25 October 2019.
Even though the reports of other guests were sent daily to the CEO, Dutta’s name was removed from the list by Prakash, alleges the FIR.
Prakash clubbed the pending bills of other guests into one invoice with the motive of camouflaging Dutta’s outstanding dues.
The FIR alleges that he forged a PM report on 23 August 2019 showing that Dutta had settled his dues worth Rs 2,44,990 by showing the debit and credit entries of another unrelated guest.
Not only that, Dutta’s outstanding bills were reduced in many ways – for instance he was not charged any tariff for the room he was staying in for at least 308 days.
Prakash allegedly forged pending bills to benefit Dutta, transferred his debts into the bills of other guests, showed settled bills of other guests by replacing their name with Dutta’s.
The hotel staff also allegedly reduced the room rate from Rs 7,500 to Rs 3,920 (inclusive of taxes) during October 2020 to January 2021, which, according to the complainant, is peak season for the hotel.
How Much Does He Owe the Hotel ?
The room rate per night inclusive of all taxes, Wi-Fi, and breakfast amounts to Rs 7,497. The total tariff for the room that Dutta owes the hotel is Rs 45,20,619, as per the FIR.
In addition, Dutta allegedly used services such as laundry, transportation, bar, food, and beverages. The bills for all these services – adding up to Rs 13,14,504 – were allegedly fraudulently transferred to the ‘pending folder’ of another guest.
The total amount owed to the hotel is Rs 58,38,123.
As per the FIR, Dutta allegedly presented several cheques from State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank in October and November 2020 but all of them bounced on presentation in the bank. Prakash allegedly did not inform the senior management about the bounced cheques. As a result, the senior management could not send a notice to Dutta or even initiate legal action against him.
And Dutta checked out of the hotel without clearing his outstanding dues.
What Are The Charges?
The complainant has alleged that Prakash and other unknown staff of the hotel forged, deleted, and added accounts entries, and falsified a large number of entries in Dutta’s account in the Opera software system of the hotel.
In all, Prakash charged Dutta only 118 days and concealed the charges for 450 days, thereby substantially reducing Dutta’s liabilities.
Add to that, they illegally transferred the debit entries of room charges of 18 other different guests from 12 July 2019 to 22 March 2021 and posted them onto the bill of Dutta.
This was to show that Dutta owes an amount of Rs 2,72,344 as against the actual amount of over Rs 58 lakh.
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