Mumbai: Western Railway TCs nab woman with fake AC train pass

The fake season ticket was found in the possession of a woman

Two international-level medallist athletes working as ticket checkers on Western Railway Mumbai caught a woman commuter, who works as a software engineer, with fake season tickets (passes) on board the AC local train. "Today, in AC local between Virar and Churchgate at 9.23 am, two fake passes bearing serial number D 39503073 were detected by deputy chief ticketing inspectors Harpreet Kaur and Jaswinder Kaur. When enquired, the passenger said she had bought the pass from a shop that displayed the railway booking board. She said that she had paid Rs 1,880 for the pass from December 29, 2022 to January 28, 2023 and paid Rs 2,548 for another pass from September 29 to December 28, 2022. As per her statement, she was told by the shopkeeper that the passes were available at discounted rates. The passenger has been detained by the police and further proceedings are being carried out at the police station," Western Railway chief spokesperson Sumit Thakur said.

While Harpreet Kaur, deputy chief ticketing inspector, Andheri, is a two-time international silver medallist in 400-metre hurdles in athletics, who represented India thrice and is also a three-year inter-railways gold medallist in the 400-metre event, three-year national champion and at present is an athletics coach for the WR women's team.

Jaswinder Kaur, deputy chief ticketing inspector, Mumbai Central, is an international hockey player, who represented India at the women's junior hockey tournament in Scotland, the Malaysia hockey league at Kuala Lumpur and senior national women's hockey tournament at Bhopal and Bangalore. "We were examining tickets in AC local when a commuter showed us the pass. On informing her that it was expired, she took out another pass. Both the passes did not feel like originals as they were colour photocopies, which first raised our suspicion," said Jaswinder Kaur.

"Besides, the railway series numbers on the pass were not from the ongoing series, which confirmed our suspicion and we detained the passenger," said Harpreet Kaur. "The passenger has been detained and she will not only have to pay a hefty fine, but now has been booked by the police for cheating, which may affect her career in the long run. All this has happened to her as she tried to save some money. We appeal to commuters not to fall for such tricks and buy genuine tickets only," Jaswinder Kaur said.