BENGALURU: In a shocking incident on Wednesday afternoon, the ticket-checking squad of Bengaluru Railway Division on board the Chamrajnagar-Bengaluru Passenger bumped into four individuals also working as Ticket Collectors on the train but found them to be fake.
Though arrested for impersonation, it turns out that they were victims of a recruitment scam possibly taking place across the South Western Railway Zone.
The incident took place around 12.30 pm when the train neared Kengeri. A top Government Railway Police cop told TNIE, “We have taken them into custody and booked cases against them for impersonating Travelling Ticket Examiners. Our preliminary interrogation reveals that each of them has paid Rs 6 lakh for their post in the Railways created by a fake recruitment agency.”
The four have been booked under Sections 419, 468 and 471 of the IPC. He said,” The agency which hired them gave them the designation of Probationary Ticket Collectors and asked them to merely play the role of observers on the train. They began duty just a week ago (March 28). The appointment orders were fake.” Detailed investigations will reveal the extent of the recruitment scam, he added.
The actual ticket squad headed by Arun D’ Souza noticed their suspicious behaviour and asked them to produce their Identity cards. The ID cards which designated them as Probationary Ticket Collectors were of Mahantesh Shinde (27), Shrivari D Telka (20), Humed Athar Nadaf (27), and Mohamed Saleem Mulla M (31).
An official release said Railways would never send probationary ticket collectors for checks on trains. “The identity cards listed father under the dependent category which confirmed it as a bogus card,” he said. A source informed, “Railway employees are only allowed to list their spouse and children as dependents and not their parents. The mother’s name can be given if the father has passed away and has no other source of income.”
They were immediately handed over to the Railway Protection Force for investigation. The fake TTEs claimed to be natives of Belagavi. Divisional Railway Manager, Shyam Singh, appreciated the alertness of the Ticket Checking squad.