The police have arrested seven persons, including employees of the world-famous Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, on charges of duping some devotees from New Delhi by issuing fake entry tickets to the ‘Bhasma Aarti’ ritual at much higher rates than the official fees.

According to the police, the fraud occurred with three devotees from New Delhi, Nitin Bhardwaj, Mohit Arora and Dishant Gaira who had come to the Mahakal Temple to take part in the ‘Bhasma Aarti’ on 16 April. The trio had lodged a written complaint about the incident with the Temple Committee authorities and on the basis of the complaint the temple committee had lodged an FIR in Mahakal Police station.

During investigations, police found that the three devotees had come in contact with an accused named Pawan Kumar Sharma who had assured them of getting entry tickets through another accused Mrityunjay Kumar at the rate of Rs 1,500 each.

However, when the devotees produced the tickets before the temple staff at the entry gate, the barcodes on the tickets were found already used by some other devotees in the past and the tickets turned out to be fake.

The police said the accused used to provide fake tickets by changing the names of devotees on already used tickets. However, they could not succeed in altering the barcodes of the tickets and the scam was unearthed.

According to Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abhishek Anand, those arrested include Pawan Kumar Sharma, Mrityunjay Kumar, Shekhar Tiwari, Gaurav Sharma, Vishal Sharma and Vipin Makwana.

The accused include a temple employee, a temple security guard and two middlemen. Police have confiscated six mobile phones, a laptop and the Rs 4,500 from the accused.

Police officials said that the authorised rate of one entry ticket for the Bhasma Aarti is Rs 250 but the accused charged Rs 1,500.

The Bhasma Aarti is the ritual in which ashes are used as the offering. It is possibly the most popular and sought after ritual at the Mahakal Temple, hence the entry is very difficult. It is performed during the Brahma Muhurata between 4 am and 5.30 am.