The Borivali Railway Police have arrested two individuals for travelling in a first-class compartment of a Mumbai local train using bogus railway passes. The accused have been identified as Akash Purushottam Varthi and Aniket Kini. After their arrest, both were produced before the court and have been remanded to judicial custody, senior police inspector Datta Kupekar confirmed.
Police investigations have revealed that a third accomplice had created the fake railway passes through the UTS mobile application, and efforts are underway to trace him.
Vishnu Ramsingh Thakur, a resident of Malad and a Commercial Sub-Ticket Clerk with Western Railway, was on ticket-checking duty along with his colleague Baljit Singh at Borivali railway station on Friday afternoon.
Around 4 pm, while checking tickets on a Churchgate-bound local, the duo asked a commuter to show his ticket before the train reached Kandivali station. The commuter showed a first-class season pass from Virar to Churchgate on his mobile phone.
Finding the pass suspicious, the ticket examiners verified it using the Hand Held Terminal (HHT) device, which confirmed that the pass was fake. The barcode displayed on the passenger’s mobile was also found to be invalid when scanned.
The passenger was detained and brought to the Borivali Railway Police Station for further questioning.
During interrogation, the accused identified himself as Akash Varthi, a resident of Sagar Pada, Naigaon in Palghar district. Further investigation revealed that he had generated the fake Virar–Churchgate first-class pass using the UTS mobile app, and had been travelling using such bogus passes for some time.
Based on the complaint filed by Vishnu Thakur, the police registered a case of cheating and using forged documents. The investigation was handed over to PSI Jayashree Mulgir.
Akash’s questioning revealed the involvement of his friend Aniket Kini. Acting on this information, PSI Mulgir and a police team detained Aniket, who later confessed to his involvement. Both Akash and Aniket were subsequently arrested.
During questioning, it was found that both worked in a private company and had been travelling on local trains using fake first-class passes for the past one-and-a-half to two months. The fake passes were allegedly created for them by another friend through the UTS app.
The third accused has been identified as a wanted suspect, and police efforts are ongoing to track him down.