Mumbai: 400 fake BEST passes sold in past 4 months

The Chembur Police have arrested four people for allegedly issuing fake BEST passes to passengers. They were arrested on Wednesday.

According to the Chembur Police, the entire fraud came to light after a passenger bound for Kurla was questioned by a ticket checker since his pass seemed flawed. When he was taken to the Kurla depot for further questioning, they realised his pass was fake.

Arjun Jadhav (26), who is allegedly the mastermind of the racket, was arrested for deliberately printing the names of new customers on old, used, discarded passes.

"Jadhav works for Trimax, which is a private firm and issues passes to BEST commuters.

Data of old customers was being accessed by the accused and discarded passes were being re-printed with new names along with a new expiry date. BEST was running a loss because of this. The new passes were being sold to customers at cheaper rates than the original.

His other associates, Arjun Patel (43), Anurag Tiwari (21), and Kushal Patil (23), who helped him conduct his activities, were also arrested." said Shahaji Umap, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 6.

"The group had been doing this for the past four months and since the existing ticket checking machines could only ascertain the validity of the pass and not the originality of it, the racket never came to light. We believe that around 400 fake passes have been sold. A case has been registered under section 420,465,468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code and further investigation is underway," Umap added.