In one of its major investigations in the ticketing segment, Northern Railway Vigilance Department unearthed a serious fraud in the sale of rail tickets during the heavy festive rush period in Delhi Area.
The modus operandi by the Unauthorised Ticketing Agency (UTA) involved sale of already booked rail tickets on commonly-sounding names like N Kumar, S Kumar etc and where the name did not match with the ticket-seekers’ own names, the UTA demanded photos from the ticket purchaser and issued Fake IDs by affixing his/her photo in an already printed Identity Proof of a fake institution. The agents used to book PRS tickets in advance from small PRS centres in Sonpur Division of East Central Railway. The modus operandi uncovered was a ground-breaking finding in recent times since the notification of the Ministry of Railways for carrying of valid identify proof by rail passengers while traveling in reserved compartments in trains. This investigation into unscrupulous operation not assumes a significance step in halting fraudulence in rail ticketing which could also have possible serious ramifications in checking impersonation by persons with criminal background using apparently innocuous identity proofs while traveling in trains.
During one of the decoy checks conducted on November 1, the vigilance sleuths along with Railway Protection Force personnel busted the racket of an UTA in Delhi Area. On source information, a decoy check was conducted on a UTA M/S. Gupta Medical Store near Anupam Restaurant, Munirka was found indulging in issuing of PRS tickets on fictitious names at the cost of three times higher value with fake IDs affixing photos of the persons approaching for PRS tickets. The owners of the shop were unauthorised ticketing agents named Vimlesh Kumar and Avdhesh (both brothers).
To verify the source information, a decoy passenger was sent to the ticketing agency along with two photos to book the ticket from New Delhi to Patna in sleeper class for two persons in any train. The said agency demanded Rs 2000 and one photo to issue the ID proof in the name of passenger which was already booked earlier. The Unauthorised Ticketing Agency delivered the ticket along with fake ID in the name of Natraj Kumar and affixed the photo of Vinod Dhiman for the ID. Another ID in the name of Sudhir Kumar was prepared affixing the photo of Parhlad, vigilance inspector. But the agency could not provide the ticket for Darbhanga in sleeper class as per demand for the same. On the subsequent raid conducted by the team on the premises, 28 more PRS tickets (including two e-tickets) and two e-tickets for different dates from November 2 to 7 for 51 passengers amounting to Rs 30,119 along with three IDs with photos and 46 blank IDs were recovered from them and other incriminating materials like lamination machine and photo-printing papers. Two persons have been arrested under the Section 143 of Indian Railways Act, 1989 and handed over to RPF Delhi Cantonment.
Out of the 26 PRS tickets recovered from the agents, 25 were booked from Mansi Junction and one was issued from Khagaria station in Sonpur Division. The tickets were mostly from New Delhi/Anand Vihar for Patna/Rajendra Nagar, Bhagalpur, Jasidih and Jai Nagar in East Central Railway. Most of these tickets were issued in continuity on the opening day of the advance reservation period. Most of the tickets were for train numbers 12394 (Sampoorna Kranti Express), 12402 (Magadh Express), 12368 (Vikramshila Express) and 12304 (Poorva Express). The tickets were mostly from New Delhi/Anand Vihar for Patna/Rajendra Nagar, Bhagalpur, Jasidih and Jai Nagar in East Central Railway. The railway is also probing into the role of reservation staff of Mansi Junction in this operation. During the investigation was carried out by the vigilance teams in high-demand trains like Magadh, Poorva and Sampoorna Kranti ahead of the Chhat Pooja and nine passengers were caught traveling on fake IDs and PRS tickets on fictitious names issued by the same agents. These passengers were charged on penal rate. All these passengers have paid premium of Rs 500 to Rs 1000 to these agents. Further checks on trains are being carried and would continue till Chhatt Rush that is November 10.