Canteen staff held for forgery and VIP ticketing fraud at CSMT

MUMBAI: A major ticketing fraud involving forged documents and the misuse of the railway’s emergency VIP quota has come to light on Central Railway (CR), just as summer travel demand reaches its peak.

On Thursday, CR’s vigilance department apprehended a canteen staffer, identified as Ravindra Sahu, employed as a waiter at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) for allegedly forging signatures and official stamps to secure confirmed tickets on long-distance trains. The tickets were issued under the ‘HO Quota’, a railway VIP quota generally reserved for high-priority cases.

The racket was uncovered when officials in the commercial department spotted requisition forms bearing the signature and stamp of a railway officer currently on leave. These forms—distinct from the ones used by the general public—are used for allotting seats under special quotas. The officer in question has been on leave for the past 6–8 months. “Our staff noticed inconsistencies and immediately alerted senior officials and the vigilance team,” a senior CR official confirmed.

Acting on intelligence, a team was dispatched to inspect Train No. 12322, the CSMT–Howrah Kolkata Mail. The vigilance team boarded the train at Kalyan station and targeted the S2 coach of Sleeper Class, where six passengers were travelling on HO quota tickets. The berths in question were numbers 18, 21, 22, 25, 26, and 27.

Preliminary checks revealed that one of the six passengers was travelling under a different name. He was charged accordingly. The remaining five had valid ID proof matching their tickets. All six passengers admitted to paying extra money to a person at CSMT station in exchange for confirmed reservations. The tickets were seized for further examination.

Based on the statements provided, the vigilance team identified and detained Sahu, a canteen worker stationed at the Guards and Motormen canteen at CSMT. Investigations revealed that Sahu had access to forged stamps from four different railway officers. He allegedly filled out requisition forms with passenger details and fake signatures, before submitting them into the mail drop box at the Divisional Railway Manager’s (DRM) office—used to process requests under emergency quota.

“Sahu confessed to forging signatures and stamps to issue confirmed tickets through the HO quota. He claimed to have been doing this for the past two months, though it may have been going on longer,” said a CR official. Sources pointed out that since the officer’s forged signature was in use during his extended leave, the fraud could date back at least six months.

Further examination of Sahu’s UPI transaction history showed monthly inflows of ₹1–1.5 lakh, allegedly earned through the illicit sale of confirmed tickets.

He has been handed over to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and booked under various sections of the Railway Act. A broader investigation is now underway to determine the scale of the fraud and whether others are involved.