A 42-year-old Western Railway ticket checker was allegedly bitten and scratched by a woman passenger during a ticket-checking operation on a Virar-bound local train at Andheri station on Wednesday morning, after the passenger was issued a Rs 510 penalty for travelling without a valid ticket.
According to an FIR registered with the Andheri railway police, the ticket checker, Harpreet Kaur Kamat, was on duty on the Virar-bound fast local after boarding it at Bandra at around 8.26am. The alleged assault took place at about 8.42am on platforms 6 and 7 at Andheri station.
Kamat told the police that she noticed the passenger travelling without a valid ticket. The woman reportedly said that her purse had been stolen and that she could not find her ticket. Kamat subsequently collected a fine of Rs 510 and issued a receipt, according to the complaint.
The passenger allegedly attacked the ticket checker while Kamat was checking the receipt. The complaint states that the woman bit Kamat’s hand and scratched her with her fingernails. She allegedly continued the assault before Kamat managed to move away.
Kamat was taken to Cooper Hospital for treatment following the incident. She later approached the railway police and lodged a complaint, leading to the registration of a case under Sections 121(1) and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The case places the incident within the routine enforcement work carried out on Mumbai’s suburban railway, where ticket-checking staff interact directly with passengers during train journeys and at stations. The FIR records the alleged physical attack, while the circumstances surrounding the passenger’s claim about her stolen purse remain part of the police investigation.
The identity of the accused woman has not yet been established. Railway police are conducting further investigation into the incident.
