The Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested a former Ranji player for duping passengers at Pune railway station by sending fake confirmed ticket messages.
The accused, identified as Pravin Kumar Madhukar Londhe (31), a resident of Walwa taluka, Sangli, had been defrauding passengers for the past couple of months by sending fake railway SMS messages, said police.
Inspector Sunil Kumar Yadav, RPF, Pune railway station, said the arrested person pursued engineering from a reputed college in Pune and is a cricket player. He was unemployed for the past few months and was staying at a lodge near the station. “The accused fled the lodge without paying the rent,” he added.
“During inquiry, he revealed that he cleared the IIT-JEE exam and was a graduate from an esteemed engineering college in Pune. For the past two months, he has been fleecing money by targeting vulnerable poor passengers whose tickets were not confirmed,” said the Inspector.
Inspector Yadav further said on December 17, a passenger named Dipendra Rokaya arrived at Pune railway station, intending to travel to New Delhi without a confirmed ticket. “While anxiously standing in line at the UTS counter to purchase a general ticket, Londhe approached him, claiming to have connections with railway officials. Gaining Rokaya’s trust, Londhe sent a fake SMS to his mobile phone with fake ticket details, convincing him that the ticket was confirmed. Rokaya gave him Rs 2000 cash,” said Yadav.
Upon boarding the train, Rokaya had a confrontation with another passenger who claimed the same seat, leading to confusion. The on-duty travelling ticket examiner confirmed that the ticket was fake and reported the incident as a case of cheating.
On December 22, a similar incident occurred when another complaint was lodged by a victim named Niranjan Chaudhary, who received a fake ticket through SMS from Londhe’s mobile number.
Acting on these complaints, inspector Yadav and his team began investigating the identity of the accused by analyzing his social media accounts and confirming details with the victims.
“After final confirmation, my team and I stood at the UTS counter posing as passengers. We apprehended Londhe on December 23,” said Yadav.
“During further inquiry, we discovered that he had duped at least 12 passengers, though the actual number may be higher as he had deleted several messages. He was using the same PNR number (PNR 8451236947) for multiple victims,” he added.
The accused, along with the evidence, has been handed over to the Government Railway Police, Pune for further action. A case has been registered, and investigations are ongoing to uncover the extent of the fraud.
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Shubham Tigga hails from Chhattisgarh and studied journalism at the Asian College of Journalism. He previously reported in Chhattisgarh on Indigenous issues and is deeply interested in covering socio-political, human rights, and environmental issues in mainland and NE India. Presently based in Pune, he reports on civil aviation, other transport sectors, urban mobility, the gig economy, commercial matters, and workers' unions. You can reach out to him on LinkedIn … Read More
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