A man who came to Kolkata to work at a restaurant a week ago was caught while trying to return home to Aizawl allegedly with a fake air ticket on Monday evening.
Police said H. Lalmalsawma, the accused, had edited a soft copy of his ticket from Aizawl to Kolkata and tried to turn it into a return ticket for Aizawl. He was caught at the airline counter of the Kolkata airport and handed over to the police.
Lalmalsawma had allegedly used Photoshop to morph the ticket he had purchased while coming to Kolkata.
“He came for a job. He thought he would be able to fly back if he changed the date on the ticket and took out a print of the forged ticket. He had no idea that even if he had changed the date on the ticket, the barcode on the forged ticket would not match with any genuine ticket on that date,” said an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate.
Lalmalsawma, the police said, was intercepted at the counter of a private airline where he produced his “ticket” and was trying to deposit his luggage for check-in.
An official of the airline found the “ticket” suspicious and on verification, discovered that no such ticket was booked for a flight from Kolkata to Aizawl on Monday evening.
Lalmalsawma was handed over to CISF, the central agency that is in charge of security at the airport, which in turn handed him to the Bidhannagar police.
“He said he had come to Kolkata with a relative, who got him a ticket, but he had no money to book a return ticket,” said an officer.
Sources in the police said multiple security checks are followed while verifying an air ticket before the flier is allowed to check in. “The personal identity documents and details mentioned on the ticket, including the date of journey and the barcode, are verified before anyone is allowed to walk past the counters,” said an officer.
The second round of checks is run at the security check-in gate, where again the ticket is verified and the hand luggage scanned.