Fraud in Rajasthan over hotel bookings! FIR against OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal for cheating over Rs 22 crore

Hotel Booking Scam: Hotel operators in Jaipur have accused Oyo Rooms, an online hotel booking company, of making fraudulent bookings at their hotels.

Jaipur: Hotel operators in Jaipur have accused Oyo Rooms, an online hotel booking company, of making fraudulent bookings at their hotels. By creating these fake bookings, Oyo inflated its earnings, but this has resulted in hotels facing tax recovery, penalties, and interest charges amounting to crores of rupees from the GST department.

They are running from pillar to post dealing with the department. One hotel has filed an FIR against Oyo company director Ritesh Agarwal at Adarshnagar police station. Hussain Khan, President of the Hotel Federation of Rajasthan, described this unusual case as a growing problem for the hotel industry. Meanwhile, Sandeep Gogia, the convenor, stated that 100 hotels have received GST notices.

In Jodhpur too, in the last six months, more than 10 hotel operators have received notices from SGST and CGST. It was revealed that large-scale fraud occurred in the name of booking and then cancelling hotel rooms. One hotel even received a notice for approximately ₹1 crore. Hotels are booked online and then immediately cancelled. A GST charge is levied for this, which the hotel operators have to bear.

Hotel Didn't Exist in 2016, Yet Bookings Shown

Case 1

Madan Jain, director of Samskara Resort, stated that Oyo showed bookings totalling ₹22.51 crore at their resort. Because of this, the GST department has demanded payment of ₹2.66 crore. Notably, Oyo showed bookings at Samskara even in 2016, when the hotel did not even exist.

Earnings Shown as ₹44 Crore in One Year

Case 2

Nitin, the operator of Kartikeya Hotel, said that the GST department showed earnings of ₹44 crore for 2023-24. A recovery notice of ₹4 crore has been received.