The guest who never checked out: How one man spent 30 years outwitting luxury hotels

Sometimes, he would sneak out with valuables from the hotel, such as  the Rs 1.48 lakh laptop he had   allegedly slipped into his bag before leaving the Raipur hotel. “John had become so casual about it that he boasts of stealing valuables from over 300 luxury hotels,” a Raipur police officer said. “He told us he spent time in Tihar jail and heard stories of Charles Sobhraj. He liked how cunning he was.”

The guest who never paid

Born in Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, John studied in an English-medium school and never married. Investigators said John told them he began working as a tourist guide in Delhi in the 1980s, which helped him get free hotel stays as part of his perks.

“He told us that once something went wrong and he was humiliated by the management of a luxury hotel. Since then, he nursed a grudge and began targeting these high-end places,” sub-inspector Piyush Baghel, the investigating officer in the case, told The Indian Express.

He was booked and arrested by the Delhi Police for the first time in 1996. According to the police, he would check in as an English teacher, a tour guide or a yoga instructor. He would allegedly arrive with two bags — one carrying his belongings, the other stuffed with newspapers or pillows.

“He would never allow the hotel staff to carry his luggage,” the officer said. “To evade suspicion, he often left one bag — the one with the newspapers — in the hotel so people wouldn’t think he was leaving. He would always smuggle out expensive liquor, cigarettes or valuables like laptops, selling them later.”

While he initially used his Aadhaar card to check in, he later switched to photocopies after the document was confiscated by the Andhra Pradesh Police.

According to investigators, John checked into a five-star hotel in Raipur on June 25 posing as an event organiser. “He is fluent in speaking English. He also sweet-talked one of the staffers into giving him a laptop. He told the staffer he had good contacts in the hotel industry and would get him a better job,” one officer said.

At the hotel, he ordered some foreign-made cigarettes and an expensive bottle of liquor “even though he doesn’t drink or smoke”.

“After staying for two days, John went to the reception and said he wanted to book another room for his son, who would be coming the next morning. On both days, John left the hotel for ‘some work’ and returned, which did not raise any alarm,” the officer said.

Among the cases against him was his 2016 fraud at the Hotel Crowne Plaza in New Delhi’s Okhla.

However, on the morning of June 27, John quietly slipped out of the hotel. CCTV footage in the lobby shows him walking out with two bags, one in his hand and the other slung over his shoulder. The bill came to Rs 63,755.

According to investigators, John sold the cigarettes and the liquor bottle before fleeing. After finding his mobile numbers switched off, hotel authorities approached the local police, who found that he had first taken a train to Bilaspur and then another to Bhubaneswar, where he was arrested on July 2.

“He told us he stayed in another four-star hotel in Raipur during the pandemic. We contacted the hotel, but they have no record,” the officer said, adding, “Luxury hotels tend to avoid filing police complaints over small amounts, fearing it could compromise their reputation.”

John had been taking advantage of his age, one investigator said. The police also claim they “didn’t treat him like other criminals”.

“When we questioned him, he looked apologetic and promised this was his last time. He said he had 10 acres of ancestral land, and that he planned to settle in an old-age home in Goa,” City Superintendent of Police (CSP) Ramakant Sahu said. It’s a story he had already told other police departments before, the officer claims. “I don’t believe him.”