A lady ticket examiner, Ujwala Gowde, with an eye for detail ensured that a lady passenger, Afrin Shaikh, was apprehended at Dadar's platform number 2 for carrying a fake season pass. Shaikh was handed over to the police.
What raised ticket examiner's suspicion?
According to railway officials, Shaikh, a Mira Road resident, had a 6-monthly season pass from Bhayander to Churhcgate which was 'valid' from January 5 to July 5. However, the word printed in the top left corner of the pass was 'monthly', something that did not escape the eye of Gowde, despite the fact examiners get nothing more than a couple of seconds to check each ticket or pass.
What is unreserved ticket system number?
The season pass was scrutinised and WR personnel realised that the UTS (unreserved ticket system) number was fake. The UTS number printed on the top left of a ticket or pass is a code that is for internal use and gives the railways information on the station and ticket booking window from which the ticket or pass has been issued.
"Since the UTS is a fully computerised system, the entire details of the pass is available once this number is fed into the main computers controlling the UTS mechanism. In this case, it turned out that the UTS number and the details printed on the ticket were not matching, which meant the pass was fake," said a WR official.
How many passes were found?
WR personnel found two more passes from the lady — from July 5 last year to January 5 this year and from July 5 this year to January 5 next year — both of which were fake. With the lady claiming that the pass was given to her by her office, the railway officials said an investigation has been launched to see if this was a bigger racket where some office employees were making copies of passes and distributing them among colleagues.
Was a case registered?
Speaking to dna, Sharat Chandrayan, chief public relations officer, WR, said: "This aspect of the case will be investigated." A case was registered by WR under sections 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal Code at Mumbai Central railway police station.
For the railways, with just about a thousand ticket-checkers spread across the suburban system to check almost 45 lakh passes, a fraud like the one the lady has allegedly committed could spell a financial disaster. "Since it is impossible to cross-check all passes, the railways does not provide duplicate season passes. That is because there is no way we can cross-check if someone says he has lost his pass, gets a duplicate and then hands it over to some friend of his," said an official.
