PARADIP: The arrest of two Jharkhand natives for impersonating as railway staff has sparked concern as the duo was found manning a passenger halt (PH), a critical safety breach, on the Cuttack-Paradip line Wednesday last.
Raj Kumar Purty and Charan Bodra, not only manned the PH but also flagged trains. They have been charged with impersonation, forgery and endangering railway safety.
Purty, 30, is a resident of Banahamtu under West Singhbhum district. Twenty-year-old Bodra is from Kaisa in the same district. They were arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) following the intervention of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
When a team led by IIC of RPF, Paradip Mithelesh Kumar visited Bagadia passenger halt, Purty was in the station master’s uniform and signalling trains with a green flag, raising suspicion. Bodra was in the uniform of a token porter. Questioned, both failed to produce any legitimate joining letter or authorisation, and showed ID cards suspected to be forged.
The duo claimed to hail from Jharkhand but had been staying at a lodge in Jatni and commuting to Bagadia PH to perform unauthorised ‘duties’, including flagging trains, GRP officials said.
Purty’s backpack had a train arrival and departure register of East Coast Railway, railway dak register of Khurda Road, a file titled ‘Proposal for Staff Canteen,’ fake identity card of assistant station master issued in 2023, two fake station master identity cards issued in 2025, a red and a green signal flag.
GRP sources said Purty confessed to be part of a job racket run by Santosh Kumar Patra, a native of Bihar. The module allegedly extorted money from unemployed youths by promising them jobs in the railways. They even assigned them duties at isolated stations across Bihar, Jharkhand and other states to avoid detection. He admitted to cheating many youths since 2023 with fake appointment letters.
Bodra, appointed in a similar fashion as a porter on May 2, was trained by Purty to show flags, an action that posed serious risk to train operations. Both used forged documents, seals and railway items to deceive job seekers. They too had received money in advance.
Kumar lodged an FIR with GRP, Cuttack and handed over both the accused. IIC of GRP Cuttack Jyoti Prakash Nayak confirmed a case has been registered under sections 319(2),336(3)&(5) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and section 153 of the Railway Act.