BENGALURU: Close on the heels of a senior railway ticketing official in the Bengaluru Railway Division being dismissed from service for his misbehaviour with a lady passenger, another incident has come to light where an IT professional was humiliated. The techie claimed he was dragged by his collar, his spectacles were removed and he was abused by a senior ticketing officer on April 18. The incident happened on Platform 1 of the KSR railway station at 9.15 am.
The issue boils down to the malfunctioning of UTS app on Karthik Poojar’s phone when the chief ticketing supervisor B M Radhakrishnan asked him to produce his travel ticket. Poojar, a regular commuter between KSR and Whitefield for his work, told TNIE, “I had alighted at the City Railway station Metro station and was on my way to board the train to Whitefield. When the ticket checker asked me for my ticket, I opened the UTS app but could not open it due to internet connectivity issue. Though I tried explaining this, he asked me to pay fine and leave. The official was addressing me in the singular and spoke very rudely.”
Poojar said that he had a regular season ticket and showed the screenshot to the ticket checker. “When I told him the train was about to leave, he manhandled me and told that I could not go. I had no plans to run away at all. I am fully aware that one must produce a ticket when asked and cannot leave. Later, I was taken to the Deputy SMR room. I repeatedly tried to open the app, uninstalled and installed it, logged in with the help of a junior railway official, and was finally produced the ticket. I reached office at 11.20 am instead of 10 am,” he added.
Radhakrishnan, however, claimed that Poojar was running to board the train. “I have actually saved his life by holding his collar. We were on Platform 1 and his train was on PF 2. I felt he would trespass the tracks to board the train. He was abusing Indian Railways as the app was not working, therefore, I was rude to him.” He assured polite behaviour in future.