Couple uses AI tools to create fake local railway pass; detained after ticket checker detects fraud
Thane, Nov 27 (PTI): Police have detained a woman sales manager of a private bank and her engineer husband for allegedly creating a fake season pass for local railway travel in the Mumbai suburban network using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, officials said on Thursday.
The couple's fraud came to light on November 26 when a ticket checker was examining the tickets in an AC local train going to Dadar in Mumbai from Kalyan in Thane, in which the woman was travelling, they said.
She was caught when the train was between Kalyan and Dombivli stations, they said.
Ticket checker Vishal Tukaram Navle was inspecting tickets in the AC local train. When he asked the woman, Gudiya Omkar Sharma (28), to show her ticket, she told him that she had a season pass, but failed to open it through the railway's official Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) mobile app. She opened a link on the Google Chrome browser to show the pass. The QR code section was also non-functional, the police said.
The ticket checker grew suspicious, and in order to verify the pass' serial number, he contacted the Central Railway helpline, and the authorities told him that the pass expired in February this year. It also came to light that the pass was registered under a male name - Omkar Sharma - who is her husband, they said.
After the fraud was detected, the woman and her 30-year-old husband were detained. During his questioning, Omkar confessed to using his coding knowledge to indulge in this sophisticated forgery. He said he used AI tools to generate a counterfeit UTS pass, according to the police.
After that, the Kalyan railway police registered a case against them under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 318 (4) (cheating), 336(2) (forgery), 336 (3), 340 (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine), and 3(5) (common intention).
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Talks ended without deal due to 'excessive demands' made by US: Iran
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Islamabad (PTI): The Iran-US talks in Pakistan have ended without a deal due to "excessive demands" made by the American side, a top Iranian official said on Sunday.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei, however, said Iran is determined to utilise all tools, including diplomacy, to secure national interests and protect the country's well-being.
US Vice President JD Vance, who led the American delegation, said the talks failed to reach a peace deal, citing Tehran not forgoing its nuclear programme as one of the key sticking points. He said the American side presented its "final and best offer" to the Iranian side, but it did not accept it.
Baqaei, however, said that the two sides reached a consensus on some issues, but they held different views regarding 2-3 important matters.
He said that during the intensive negotiations that began Saturday morning, with Pakistan's mediation, numerous messages and texts were exchanged between the two sides.
"In the past 24 hours, discussions were held on various dimensions of the main negotiation topics, including the Strait of Hormuz, the nuclear issue, war reparations, lifting of sanctions, and the complete end to the war against Iran and in the region," Baqaei said.
"The success of this diplomatic process depends on the seriousness and good faith of the opposing side, refraining from excessive demands and unlawful requests, and the acceptance of Iran's legitimate rights and interests," he added.
He said it was natural that Iran should not have expected from the beginning to reach an agreement within one meeting. "No one expected that either."
"We have not forgotten and will not forget the experiences of America's breaches of promise and malicious acts," he said.
He thanked Pakistan for hosting the negotiations and for its efforts in advancing this process.
In a brief statement to the media, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Pakistan helped mediate several rounds of “intense and constructive” discussions over the past 24 hours.
Expressing hope for progress, Dar said both sides should maintain a positive spirit to achieve durable peace and regional stability.
Dar said Pakistan would continue to play its role in facilitating engagement and dialogue between Iran and the United States in the coming days.
The Iranian delegation, led by Speaker Mohammad Baqir Galibaf, had arrived in Islamabad on Friday night, while the US delegation, headed by Vice President JD Vance, arrived on Saturday morning.
It was the first direct, high-level engagement between Iran and the US since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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