Diljit Dosanjh’s concert draws huge crowd amid fake ticket scams

For the second consecutive day, massive crowds filled Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Sunday for Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh’s concert. Long queues, heavy traffic near the venue and fans walking from far distances painted a similar scene to the first night of his show.

The Delhi concert marked the beginning of Dosanjh’s 10-city nationwide tour, which will wrap up in December. While the highly anticipated show drew thousands of enthusiastic fans, some attendees faced setbacks, as many fell victim to scams involving counterfeit tickets.

A fan said how he had purchased a counterfeit ticket from an unauthorised seller outside the venue, only to be turned away by security. Despite repeated warnings from the tour organisers to buy tickets solely through the authorised seller, Zomato Live, several fans were misled by unauthorised sellers.

Adding to the challenges, another fan recounted his nine-hour struggle on Zomato Live to purchase a ticket online. On Saturday, the singer enthralled thousands of fans with his chart-topping tracks like ‘Lover’, ‘5 Taara’, ‘Do You Know’, ‘Ikk Kudi’ from ‘Udta Punjab’ and many more.

Meanwhile, the incident has garnered the attention of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which recently raided about 20 locations across Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Bengaluru. The raids targeted suspected ticket scalpers and were tied to both Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres” tour and Diljit’s “Dil-Luminati” tour. The ED investigation centres on alleged ticket resale, scams involving counterfeit tickets and inflated ticket prices. FIRs were filed in several states, and BookMyShow itself took legal action by lodging FIRs against suspects involved in these scams.

During the ED’s raids, multiple devices, including mobile phones, laptops and SIM cards, were confiscated. The scammers allegedly distributed fake tickets through platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the Delhi High Court sought a response from the Centre on a plea seeking a regulatory framework to regulate the resale of concert tickets through authorised platforms and avoid illegal selling activities. The court has posted the hearing for February 18.