Mumbai Court Denies Bail to Ticket Agent in Lok-Bhavan VIP Quota Forgery Case

A sessions court in Mumbai has refused to grant bail to 33-year-old railway ticket agent Mohammed Tarique Khan, who was arrested following a complaint registered at the Malabar Hill Police Station for allegedly booking railway tickets under the VIP quota using forged letterheads, stamps, and seals of the Lok-Bhavan office.

The case originated when Vishal Shinde, an assistant serving in the Lok-Bhavan, lodged a formal complaint. Shinde stated that on February 6, he received two letters from the Chief Commercial Manager at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) for the verification of railway reservations. The letters bore the name, signature, and stamp of Personal Assistant Abhaysinha Deshmukh, an IPS officer attached to the Lok-Bhavan office. Upon verification, the documents were discovered to be forged.

Police investigations led to the arrest of Khan. According to the prosecution, Khan booked railway tickets, forged the letterhead and signature of the Lok-Bhavan office, and handed the documents over to another accused to secure VIP confirmations.

Prosecutor Veena Shelar informed the court that Khan and other accused individuals had secured confirmations for more than 400 railway tickets under the VIP quota by using forged letterheads belonging to the Lok-Bhavan office and nearly 23 other government offices.

Khan's defence counsel argued that he was falsely implicated based on assumptions and presumptions, maintaining that the allegations were baseless and without merit. The counsel noted that Khan, a permanent resident of Uttar Pradesh, had been legitimately working as a railway ticket agent for the past six years.

Rejecting the bail application, the court noted that the allegations were very serious. The court ruled that given the circumstances, the possibilities of the accused tampering with evidence, exerting pressure on witnesses, or absconding could not be ruled out.