A renowned five-star hotel, Roseate House, located in Aerocity near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, has reportedly incurred a loss of Rs 58 lakh. The loss occurred when one of its guests allegedly colluded with certain hotel staff members and stayed for nearly two years without making any payment.

The hotel management has taken legal action by filing a case at the IGI Airport police station. Vinod Malhotra, an authorised representative of Bird Airports Hotel Private Limited, which operates Roseate, lodged the FIR  recently.

As per the complaint, the guest identified as Ankush Dutta stayed at the hotel for a duration of 603 days, resulting in a total cost of Rs 58 lakh. Shockingly, Ankush Dutta checked out without settling the outstanding amount, leaving the hotel with significant financial losses.

The hotel has implicated one of its own employees in the fraudulent incident. The allegations suggest that Prem Prakash, the head of the Front Office Department, played a role in allowing Ankush Dutta's prolonged stay, which violated the hotel's policies and norms. Prakash, who had the authority to determine room rates and access to the hotel's computer system for tracking guest dues, is believed to have facilitated Dutta's extended stay by manipulating the hotel's internal software.

The hotel management suspects that Prakash may have received a cash amount from Dutta in exchange for permitting him to overstay. This manipulation of the hotel's system allowed Dutta to evade payment for his extended accommodation.

"A criminal conspiracy was hatched by guest Mr Ankush Dutta along with some known and unknown hotel staff, including Mr Prem Prakash with a motive to gain wrongfully and deprive the hotel of its rightful dues," the FIR said.

"In pursuance of the said conspiracy, the alleged staff of the hotel forged, deleted, added accounts entries and falsified a large number of entries in the account of the said guest Ankush Dutta in the Opera software system of the hotel," it added.

The hotel has demanded strict legal action against the culprits as "they have committed criminal offences, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and falsification of accounts".

A preliminary inquiry by the IGI police showed that prima facie the offences were made out, and now they are further probing the matter.