Man caught after duping five-star hotels for over 10 years

New Delhi: For over 10 years, he enjoyed a lavish life in various five-star hotels and duped them by sneaking out without paying his bills. But he finally ran out of luck as he was arrested on Tuesday while checking in at a hotel in Connaught Place.

"The 31-year-old Sarthak Rao Babras, resident of RGT Road in Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, was arrested yesterday from near Hotel Park where he was trying to check into the hotel," Chhaya Sharma, DCP South district said on Wednesday.

He used to book a hotel on the pretext of being the guest of a Delhi-based senior bureaucrat. Babras used to provide a copy of his PAN card as proof of his identity.

The accused had duped six five-star hotels recently in Delhi before he was arrested and had cheated various such establishments over the past ten years, the official said.

Babras had checked in to ITC Sheraton Hotel in Saket on January 15. Before that, he had checked in at The Oberoi hotel and had also made a booking for stay in Hotel Hyatt from January 16, a day after he had checked in at Sheraton.

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During a search, the hotel management found a small bag with an old jacket from his suite which he left before vanishing from the hotel without formally checking out, the official said.  

While staying at Sheraton, he had availed the hotel taxi to drop him at Nehru Place on January 16 and had even borrowed Rs 2,000 from the cab driver, which made the hotel staff suspicious about him.

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During interrogation, he said he was a native of Port Blair and his father was a retired government employee of the Andaman and Nicobar administration.

After completing Class 10, he left Andaman for a Mechanical Fitter course, sponsored by the island administration, conducted at Rajkot in Gujarat. Later, he went to Mumbai for a Merchant Navy course, but he returned to Andaman in 1999-2000 after he failed to get a job.

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He indulged in con jobs to fulfil his dream of leading a lavish lifestyle in five-star hotels, which he had seen during his stay at Mumbai and other cities.

He got inspired from his friend who used such tactics to enjoy a good lifestyle. The accused used to target only elite, four and five-star hotels to avail the finest luxury without any cost.

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He was first arrested in Port Blair and was made to pay the amount and was released subsequently with a warning. Then, he went to Lucknow but ran out of luck again as he was arrested after he left hotel Taj there. He was jailed for about a year. After being released on bail, he started duping lodges and hotels at various places in India. He was again held in Ahmedabad for the same offence. Police has recovered nine keys of various hotels from him.