India, May 24 -- Sometime in February, Ramprakash Mandal, a resident of Virar, was caught travelling on a train without a ticket. Already in a lot of debt, he had to pay a fine, which infuriated him. But it also gave him an idea-one that would eventually get him arrested.

Mandal, 40, was arrested on Wednesday in Kalyan for allegedly impersonating a ticket checker and collecting fines from passengers on trains. The police found a fake receipt book on him, which he had got made from a local stationery shop by duplicating the receipt of the fine he had paid three months ago. He even had fake Indian Railways identity cards, according to the police.

"Once he realised that he could cheat commuters easily, he began penalising passengers for th...