ASI stumbles upon Rs 2.8 lakh entry fee fraud at Humayun’s Tomb

NEW DELHI: A few days after appointing a new agency to manage entry of visitors at Humayun’s Tomb, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has come across a major fraud involving at least some of the new data service operators.

ASI got the hint of the fraud when one of its officials posted near the entrance spotted a foreign visitor entering the monument, but the token value displayed on the machine was Rs 40, not Rs 600 that he had paid at the ticket counter, said a source. Once this was detected, an investigation was quietly launched and ASI came to know that out of a new stock of 200 tokens, 50 had been tampered with and marked as well.

“Because of this, while a foreigner would pay Rs 600, the token would register just Rs 40 in the system, the entry rate for Indians. These tokens were also marked so that data entry operators could identify them. The tokens were circulated several times over five days and each time they pocketed Rs 560,” said the source. Investigations finally revealed a fraud of Rs 2,76,000.


Confirming the incident, N K Pathak, superintending archaeologist (Delhi Circle), said a case had been lodged at the Nizamuddin police station and the money siphoned off had also been recovered. “Now the police inquiry will reveal how many were involved in the fraud.” ASI has already removed all eight operators.

ASI had hired a new data operator service provider on November 15 and the fraud was detected a few days after it took charge, the source said. The same operator manages other ASI monuments as well, and ASI launched a full investigation at all ticketed monuments after the fraud at Humayun’s Tomb, but nothing was found amiss.

Humayun’s Tomb, a World Heritage Site, receives the maximum number of foreign visitors after Qutub Minar and Red Fort. After ASI hiked entry rates to 17 World Heritage Sites in August, foreigners are now required to pay Rs 600 and Indians Rs 40 to visit these monuments.

The entry to Humayun’s Tomb is through turnstile gates. There are seperate queues for Indians and foreigners. Once you get to a turnstile gate, you punch the token in the machine to enter.