A 69-year-old man who spent three days living like royalty at a five-star hotel in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, vanished with the hotel's laptop, leaving staff stunned. Police investigation revealed this was no ordinary scam, the man is allegedly a career fraudster active for more than three decades, inspired by the Bikini Killer Charles Sobhraj, who has targeted luxury hotels across the country.
Arrest and identity
Raipur police arrested the accused from Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha. He was identified as Bingson John, originally from Tamil Nadu, aged 69. The investigation into the case is still ongoing.
What happened at Raipur's Hyatt hotel
Bingson John had checked into a room at the five-star Hyatt hotel in Raipur's Telibandha area. Over three days at the hotel he ran up a bill worth thousands of rupees. On June 27 he fled the hotel without paying a bill of Rs 63755. Before disappearing, he also made off with a laptop worth around Rs one and a half lakh belonging to the hotel.
On the third day of his stay, he told hotel management he had an urgent office task to finish and needed a laptop for a short while. Hotel staff handed it over without any suspicion. The moment the laptop was in his hands, the seasoned conman walked out of the hotel and never returned. When there was no sign of him for a long time, hotel management realised they had been duped on a large scale and filed a police complaint. Police traced his mobile location and nabbed him in Bhubaneswar, recovering the laptop as well.
The Charles Sobhraj influence
During interrogation, police found that Bingson John had been heavily influenced by the notorious conman and Bikini Killer Charles Sobhraj. That influence pushed him to keep devising fresh ways to con people. At times he posed as a foreign travel guide, at other times as an English teacher, and sometimes as a yoga instructor to check into expensive hotels. He would stay for days living in style and then slip away with hotel belongings without settling the bill.
From hotel waiter to career conman
Investigators learned that Bingson John once worked as a waiter at a hotel. He alleges that the hotel owner did not pay his wages and tormented him, and it was this experience that made him decide to target the country's big hotels. What began as an act of revenge stretched into a career spanning more than three decades.
More than 300 hotels targeted
The accused told police that since 1990 he has stayed in this manner at over 300 five-star hotels across the country and has carried out thefts at around 100 major hotels. According to investigating agencies, big hotels in cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad have been on his radar, and even some reputed hotel chains have fallen victim to his cons.
Bingson John was first sent to Tihar Jail in 1996 and has spent around 15 years behind bars since then. During questioning he made an intriguing admission to police, saying he only enjoys food from either five star hotels or jail.
