Man caught after 10 years of duping five-star hotels

New Delhi: He was lucky enough to enjoy a lavish life in various five star hotels and dupe them by sneaking out without paying his bills but ran out of luck after over 10 years as he was arrested 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 on Tuesday from near Hotel Park where he was trying to check in the hotel,” Chhaya Sharma, DCP South district said today. [caption id=“attachment_186995” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Law catches up with crimes. Reuters”]  [/caption] 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 photo identity. The accused had duped six five-star hotels recently in Delhi before he was arrested and had duped various such establishments over the past more than 10 years, the official said. Babras had checked in to ITC Sheraton Hotel in Saket on 15 January , before coming to Sheraton, he had checked in at The Oberai hotel and had also made booking for stay in Hotel Hyatt from 16 January, a day after he had checked in at Sheraton. 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 hotel taxi to drop him at Nehru Place on 16 January and he had even taken a Rs 2,000 from the cab driver, which made the hotel staff suspicious about him. During interrogation he said he was native of Port Blair and his father was a retired government employee of the A and N administration. After completing class 10, he left Andaman for Mechanical fitter course, sponsored by island administration, conducted at Rajkot in Gujarat. Later, he went to Mumbai for merchant navy course, but he returned to Andaman in 1999-2000 after he failed to get a job. He indulge in conning job to fulfil his dream of living 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 life style. the accused used to target only elite four and five star hotels so that the best of luxuries could be availed without any cost. He was first arrested in Port Blair and made to pay the amount and was released with a warning. Then he went to Lucknow but again ran out of luck and arrested after he left hotel Taj there. He was arrested and jailed for about one year. After being released on bail, he started duping lodges and hotel at various places in India. He was again arrested in Ahemdabad for the same offence. Police has recovered nine keys of various hotels. PTI