Officials from Central Railway said that they have recorded a total of 428 cases of fake railway tickets since June this year. This includes 102 tickets for AC coaches, the officials said. They added that miscreants are acquiring stolen data to produce duplicate tickets that resemble the tickets issued at booking counters. This has reportedly led to clashes between passengers as multiple users had tickets for the same berth/seat on a train.
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CR officials have mentioned that waitlisted tickets are not permitted since the lockdown which has led to some people printing counterfeit tickets on a paper that almost resembles the original with details like PNR, train and berth numbers etc. The only difference in these cases is the name of the passengers, leading to those with fake tickets being unable to spot their names on the booking charts before boarding the train.
Central Railway authorities said that passengers are usually unaware of the fake tickets as their tickets are mostly booked via agents. This explains the frustration on the part of the travellers upon not finding their names on the booking charts.
Furthermore, it is a pickle for checkers as well since they are the ones handling the situation at the ground level. Checkers have to handle both the parties and make sure that give the berth to rightful person and pacify the person that had been tricked. In addition to not being permitted to board, those with fake tickets may also be asked to pay a fine, the official added. It is said that the help of RPF (Railway Protection Force) personnel is sought in some situations.
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The teams investigating these incidents have further uncovered more than 100 cases of the senior citizen’s quota being misused since June. For such tickets, the miscreants usually print out authentic-looking tickets while only changing the name and the age of the passenger using correction software.
“Central Railway appeals to the passengers to travel with proper and valid railway tickets in order to avoid inconvenience and travel with dignity”, Chief Public Relations Officer at Central Railway, Shivaji Sutar said to Mumbai Live.
Other officials said that criminals are taking advantage of people who are desperate to travel back to their places of work or native villages. These fake tickets are usually sold by agents at a higher price than usual, making this a criminal enterprise on the whole.
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