### Coldplay Ticket Resale Frenzy in India Sparks Fraud Investigation

Fans of Coldplay were left stunned and disheartened when they discovered tickets for the band's upcoming concerts in Mumbai being resold for an astronomical $11,000. This startling development has prompted the Mumbai police to request a statement from the CEO of BookMyShow, the official vendor for the events, as allegations of fraud and ticket scalping intensify.

The British rock band is slated to perform three shows in Mumbai in January as part of their widely acclaimed Music Of The Spheres tour, marking their return to India since 2016. The ticket sales through BookMyShow commenced at noon on September 22, but the enormous demand overwhelmed the platform, causing the website and app to crash for many users.

Fans who managed to access the virtual queue for tickets, priced between 2,500 and 35,000 rupees ($30 to $417), found themselves behind hundreds of thousands of other users. Swiftly, the tickets sold out, only to reappear on secondary platforms at exorbitant prices, sometimes reaching up to 960,000 rupees ($11,458). This sparked widespread frustration and suspicion of automated bots having scooped up the seats.

A significant illustration of the issue, lawyer Amit Vyas, who heads the Mumbai law firm Vertices Partners, experienced the disappointment firsthand while attempting to purchase tickets online. He subsequently lodged a complaint with the police, accusing BookMyShow of enabling the unauthorized resale of tickets on the black market.

The outrage was further amplified as numerous fans from Mumbai and other regions were left without tickets. In response, Mumbai's Economic Offences Wing has summoned BookMyShow's CEO, Ashish Hemjarani, for questioning regarding the alleged black marketing of tickets.

In a public statement on X, BookMyShow firmly denied any affiliation with ticket reselling platforms or individuals engaged in reselling Coldplay's concert tickets. They also lodged a complaint about the alleged sale of counterfeit tickets on certain platforms, expressing their condemnation of ticket scalping, which is illegal in India.

Coldplay enthusiasts shared their exasperation with the flawed ticket purchasing process. Arkatapa Basu, a journalist from Bengaluru, found herself waiting behind 130,000 people for tickets, only to face an even longer queue of 700,000 when attempting to book for an additional show. Similarly, Delhi-based engineering student, Ishaan Jhamb, opted to fly to Abu Dhabi for the concert due to the prohibitively high resale prices in India.

This incident underscores the ongoing global issues plaguing ticket sales for major events. The controversy surrounding Coldplay's concert tickets in Mumbai joins a series of similar disputes worldwide, including the recent backlash against Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing for the Oasis reunion tour and the handling of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in 2022.