Lucknow, Sep 16 (IANS) An Uttar Pradesh minister, who hogged the limelight early this year for announcing a whopping bounty on the head of a Danish cartoonist who caricatured Prophet Mohammad, is in the news again. This time, however, for travelling in a train without a ticket.

Minorities Welfare Minister Haji Yaqoob Quraishi was Saturday fined Rs.14,056 for travelling in the air-conditioned cabin of the New-Delhi-Lucknow Mail along with six others without tickets.

"The minister boarded the train at Hapur station Friday night and forced himself into a First AC coupe. When the ticket examiner asked for his ticket, he claimed he had one but refused to show it," a railway spokesperson said.

"He then locked his compartment from inside and refused to come out."

It was only when a special ticket checking squad came that Quraishi opened the door at Alamnagar railway station here Saturday morning.

"We then discovered there were six other ticket-less passengers with him," the official said.

Eyewitnesses alleged that the minister was furious at the railway staff.

Rajendra Singh, Lucknow's additional divisional railway manager later said ministers were entitled to travel free but only after official requisitions were converted into tickets.