Two commuters use fake identity cards to travel by local trains in Mumbai, arrested

In a drive to curb unauthorised commuters on local trains, the commercial department of Western Railway (WR) nabbed a man on Wednesday. Andheri government railway

In a drive to curb unauthorised commuters on local trains, the commercial department of Western Railway (WR) nabbed a man on Wednesday. Andheri government railway police (GRP), too, arrested a woman for using fake identity.

HT Image

There has been a rise in instances of people creating fake identity cards of essential services workers to be able to board local trains for their regular commute.

In the first instance, Mira Road resident Ramesh Takke, 36, was arrested when trying to board a local train using a fake identity card. Takke was reportedly in touch with people who make fake identity cards for travelling by local trains.

“We have started intensive drives to check unauthorised travel. There have been five incidents of people travelling with fake identity cards that were caught during inspections till now. We request passengers who are not authorised not to travel by locals,” said Sumit Thakur, chief public relation officer, WR. WR then handed Takke over to GRP.

Inspector Bharat Chaudhary from Andheri GRP said they have arrested Takke on the charges of forgery and cheating.

According to Chaudhary, Takke, who works at a printing press, asked one of his contact to make a fake identity card. “We have arrested Takke based on the forged identity card that he had received from his contact. We have also detained the person who had sent him the forged identity and are investigating his role,” said Chaudhary.

In another incident, Andheri GRP arrested a woman for stealing the identity card of a neighbour, who is a nurse, and sticking her own photo on a photocopy of the identity card. “The woman’s mother-in-law had informed us of the incident, based on which we arrested the woman for forgery and cheating,” added Chaudhary.

Earlier, WR had detained two people travelling with fake identity cards at Borivli station.

The Central Railway, too, has detained 30 people till now for unauthorised travel.