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3 booked for travelling on Mumbai local train with AI-generated season tickets

According to Central Railway officials, during a routine ticket check on the local train from Parel, the passengers showed image files on their phones instead of displaying their season tickets on the authorised mobile application.

2 min readMumbaiDec 1, 2025 06:03 PM IST

The Central Railway said subsequent checks indicated that the season tickets presented by the commuters had been created using AI-based tools. (Source: Wikipedia)

Three commuters on the Parel–Kalyan AC local train in Mumbai were detained for travelling with AI-generated fake season tickets Friday, Central Railway officials said, adding that the Government Railway Police (GRP) have booked them under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The detained individuals were identified as Niraj Talreja, Atharv Baag and Aditi Manglurkar. The First Information Report against them was lodged under BNS sections pertaining to cheating, forgery of electronic records, and travelling on a train without a valid ticket.

According to officials, during a routine ticket check on the AC local train from Parel, the ticket checking staff asked the three passengers to show their season tickets under the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) on the mobile application. The passengers, however, showed image files stored in the phone’s documents folder.

During verification, the ticket examiner found that all three digital tickets carried the same UTS number, XOOJHN4569. As every UTS ticket is generated with a unique number, the staff referred the tickets for backend verification. Central Railway checked the mobile numbers provided by the passengers and confirmed that no UTS season tickets had been issued against the numbers.

The passengers were subsequently taken to Kurla station and handed over to the GRP. The Central Railway said subsequent checks indicated that the season tickets presented by the commuters had been created using AI-based tools.

Railway officials said similar cases of fake UTS season tickets were detected earlier this week. The railway administration has referred all cases for investigation to identify the source and method used to generate the forged tickets.

A spokesperson for the Central Railway said the department is carrying out additional checks on AC locals and other suburban services. “Passengers must show tickets generated through authorised modes only,” the official said. “Tickets displayed as screenshots or stored image files are not considered valid.”

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The railway has advised commuters to book tickets only through station booking counters, Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) or the official UTS mobile application. Officials said travelling with forged or fraudulently generated tickets can lead to prosecution under relevant BNS provisions, which include penalties and possible imprisonment.

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