CHICAGO: In a dramatic volte-face, Chicago officials have dropped their case against Gaurav Bhatia, an Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) graduate student, who was ticketed for sleeping on the local train.

The case got international attention after Bhatia, 25, refused to pay the $50 fine for sleeping in the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) train.

Police had alleged Bhatia was sprawled out on the train in a way that could have posed a threat to other passengers. Bhatia called the charges ridiculous and vowed to fight it.

The hearing was something of an anti-climax. It lasted for barely 45 seconds.

“First they gave me a ticket for sleeping dangerously on the CTA. They say they will fight. Then they drop the case. Do you think they were embarrassed? I happen to think so,” Bhatia said.

Senior Counsel James McIsaac of the city’s law department, announcing the dropping of the case, said: “At this time, the city makes a motion to non suit this matter.”

McIsaac declined to comment to reporters after the hearing.

In a statement, the police department said it stood by the officer who wrote the citation. It was dismissing the ticket “due to the minor nature of the offense, but stands behind the actions of the officer for his attention to duty,” the statement said.

Bhatia’s lawyers, Adam Goodman and Brad Ockene, were at the hearing, along with two others from the attorneys firm of Lovells, associate Erin O’Brien and legal assistant Mark Ruggiero. The attorneys offered their services for free.

They had a thick book of briefs, arguing that the CTA’s sleeping dangerously ordinance is inconsistently enforced and unconstitutional. They also brought two large exhibits on a poster board.

One was full of photographs of various CTA signs warning against illegal acts, which did not include sleeping dangerously.

In the days preceding the hearing, Bhatia got a lot of support from his relatives and friends. A cousin made a T-shirt for him which said, “I got a 50 dollar ticket for sleeping on the CTA!”

Bhatia’s fellow students at the IIT coined slogans in Hindi to chant outside the court. One of them was ‘Hai, CTA, Hai, Hai.’

Bhatia was at pains to explain to Americans that “Hai” was a condemnation and did not mean “Hello.”

Another slogan was ‘Veer Bahadur Gaurav Amar Rahe’ (Long Live Brave Gaurav).

After his case hit the headlines, Bhatia was interviewed by several television and radio stations, including the BBC. A columnist in the Chicago Tribune noted that he had got coverage even in The Times of India.

A recent opinion poll showed that 92.8 percent of subway commuters polled in Chicago felt that sleeping on the subway trains should not be a crime.