I remember couple of years ago, there was an article in the paper wherein a gentleman along with his daughter was about to board this train between Aluva & MAS . Because of the huge crowd they couldnt even reach their seat and immediately deboarded the train though they had reserved sleeper tickets.
On complaining to the station manager after the train left, he was politely told to avoid travelling in this train especially if one wants to go to intermediate stations like Chennai-VSKP etc. I guess even the railways are helpless in these situations. They cannot stop issuing tickets also.