Indian railway officials apprehend 52 Lankan tourists duped by travel agent for selling invalid train tickets

Railway officials in India yesterday caught 52 Sri Lankan tourists aboard the New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express with invalid senior citizens' concessional tickets, the Times of India reported.

The tourists were allegedly misinformed by their agent and had to pay hefty fines for travelling with invalid tickets.

The travelers were heading to Bhopal in the C3, C4 and C5 coaches of the premium train when the ticket examiner caught discrepancies in their passes. When he asked them to pay the penalties, they refused, the report claimed.

Later, when the train reached Mathura, officials sent additional staff to discuss the matter with the tourists and collected fines from them.

Speaking to TOI, divisional commercial manager and public relation officer of Agra division, Sanchit Tyagi, said, "The tourists initially refused to pay the penalty and were later informed that they had been duped by their travel agent and should the agent for a refund or lodge an FIR against him."