Ticketless travellers reply on paying fine stumps officials

A 44-year-old woman caught for travelling without a ticket has chosen to go to jail for seven days instead of paying a fine of Rs 260, saying the authorities should first arrest and recover the loan dues from liquor baron Vijay Mallya.
Premlata Bhansali, a mother of two who lives in a high-rise in plush Bhuleshwar area in south Mumbai, was caught by a ticket-checker on Sunday at the Mahalaxmi station.
Asked to pay the fine, Bhansali, according to the Railway Police, said they should first arrest Mallya who owes the banks more than Rs 9,000 crore.
“She was produced in the magistrate’s court and asked to pay the fine. But she declined and chose to go to jail for seven days,” said Anand Vijay Jha, senior divisional security commissioner of Mumbai division, Western Railway.

On Tuesday, Bhansali accepted all the charges read out by the Magistrate and yet refused to pay the fine, now amounting to Rs 1500. The court even reduced the fine to Rs 460 on humanitarian grounds, but Bhansali kept saying, “The government does not nail the rich but are after the poor like me.”