Man caught with fake ticket trying to board Goa flight

Man booked for trying to board Goa-bound flight with fake ticket at Mumbai airport after dropping off family on another flight; faces cheating and forgery charges.

MUMBAI: A Goregaon resident was booked on Tuesday after he was caught trying to board a Goa-bound flight with a fake ticket at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA).

Man caught with fake ticket trying to board Goa flight

The police later learnt that the accused, Dinesh Choudhary, 32, had gone to the airport to drop off his wife and son, who had taken an early morning flight to Prayagraj on Tuesday morning. Afterwards, he entered the airport through a departure gate instead of leaving.

“The security personnel at the airport told us that an airline worker brought Choudhary to them around 11 am on Tuesday. They said there was some issue with his ticket, so they could not allow him to board and requested he be escorted out of the airport,” said an official from Sahar police.

When the airport security authorities asked the accused to show them his ticket, he showed them a soft copy of his ticket on his phone. The ticket in the picture looked authentic, except it did not have any QR code like all tickets have these days.

“This made the security personnel suspicious, and they started asking him questions about his trip. He also was not carrying any luggage. When asked about it, he said another friend of his was on the same flight and had carried his luggage with him,” the official said. He added that the accused was then asked to show the tickets of his friend or give their information to cross-check with the airline.

The tickets he produced were those of his wife and son for a flight to Prayagraj, which had left a couple of hours ago. “They also questioned how he handed his luggage to people travelling to Prayagraj, while he was heading to Goa. He did not have any satisfactory explanation,” said the officer.

When the officials at the airport checked the CCTV footage, they found that Choudhary had entered the airport through a departure gate, following some crew members. He allegedly forged the ticket on his phone, including flight information he saw displayed at the boarding gate.

“Despite looking up his passenger information on their systems, they didn’t find any matching booking,” said the officer. Therefore, the airline decided to not let him board and handed him over to the CISF.

After a thorough enquiry, the airport security handed Chaudhary over to the police. He was booked under sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code.