MYSURU: Railway staff of the Mysuru Division of South Western Railway (SWR) busted a major scam carried out by a lone person in the disguise of a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE). Mallesh, a native of Kanakapura who was extorting and penalising several innocent passengers, was making a whopping `7,000 on a daily basis, which he spent on booze.
He was caught red-handed on Thursday by alert onboard Ticket Examiner Staff of Tippu Express when he was moving suspiciously carrying a walkie-talkie in half uniform and a fake railway tag. TTE's lobby in charge Bhaskar who received the information about his movement immediately chased and caught hold of him.
Confessing his crime with The New Indian Express in front of the railway staff and officials on Thursday, Mallesh said he was working as a bed roll boy on a contractual basis for some time when he got to know about the functioning of a TTE.
He spent `50 to get a fake railway ID card and a walkie-talkie for `700 at Gandhibazar in Bengaluru and would wear black pants with sports shoes to pose himself as TTE. He would target passengers travelling in long-distance trains mainly while the train was running over Bengaluru- Hubballi and Bengaluru-Dharmavaram sections. He was involved in illegally penalising passengers and collecting money from them.
"I have been doing this for six months -- once a week. I would get `5,000 to `7,000 a day and so far might have earned around `60,000 to `70,000 which I spent to consume alcohol," he confessed.
Recently, on June 23, while on board in a train running over the Bengaluru-Hubballi section, he had defrauded a family with `7,000 assuring them of getting seats in the train but had got down in the next station. The family who believed that a real TTE might have taken `7,000 from them had lodged a complaint and the railway staff had kept Sunil, a TTE who was deployed on the train under suspension for 14 days.
Though Sunil tried to explain to the officials that he had not collected money from any passenger, he was kept under suspension. Sunil was all smiles after the arrest of Mallesh as he was cleared of all accusations but is still expecting for withdrawal of the suspension order.
Assistant Commercial Manager Ranganadh Reddy said the accused was spotted by a ticket examiner on the Tippu Express to whom he introduced as an AC mechanic but his movement was found suspicious following which he was caught and produced before railway police for further investigation.
Meanwhile, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Mysuru division, Dr Manjunath Kanamadi has appealed to the passengers to report any suspicious practice on board trains or at railway premises on helpline and complaint numbers 139 or 182 respectively.