Arrest Vijay Mallya first or won`t pay fine, says ticketless woman traveller

Mumbai: A 44-year-old woman from an affluent family, caught for travelling without a ticket on a local train on Sunday, chose to go to jail for a week instead of paying a Rs 260 fine.

Why?

The outraged woman said the authorities should first arrest and recover the Rs 9,000-plus crores that liquor baron Vijay Mallya owes the country's banks.

The woman, a mother of two who lives in a high-rise building in the plush Bhuleshwar neighbourhood in south Mumbai, was caught by a ticket checker on Sunday at Mahalaxmi station.

When they told her to cough up the fine, she said they should first arrest Mallya, the Railway Police here said.

"She was produced in the magistrate's court today (Tuesday) and asked to pay the fine. But she declined and chose to go to jail for seven days," said a security officer at the Mumbai division of Western Railway.

A Railway Protection Force officer said that police tried very hard to persuade the woman to pay the fine and call it a day.

She remained adamant and refused to pay.

"...she spent nearly 12 hours arguing with railway officials, demanding to know why the authorities were going soft on Mallya and harassing the common man," a police officer said.

Fed up, the police summoned the woman's husband. He, too, failed to convince his wife.

She insisted on serving the seven-day jail term.