Since January this year, the Central Railway (CR) has caught five people who posed as fake ticket checking (TC) staff. This comes at a time when thousands of people are reportedly being caught travelling ticketless in local trains.
According to sources in the railways, some accused took to impersonating TCs as they had lost jobs during the pandemic. “There is no fool-proof system to prevent people from entering the station premises. Only a few of those mugging people by asking for fines get caught,” said V Nair, railway trade union leader.
Railway officials said most people do not ask for identity cards from TCs and the rail staff. On August 13, the Head TC at Dadar, Sukhvir Jatav, saw a person checking tickets of passengers on platform number 5. CR chief PRO, Shivaji Sutar said Jatav got suspicious and asked the man to show his ID card. “The person tried to run away, but was eventually caught and handed over to the GRP for further action,” said Sutar.
In another incident, on May 4, a person was found accepting money and giving a receipt to passengers in D1 coach of 02538 Kushinagar Express special, Sutar said. Senior train ticket examiner enquired and found that he was impersonating a TC. The man was later handed over to the GRP. On April 28, in another case, TTE Harimangal Yadav at CSMT detected a fake TC inside 01071 Kamayani Express special at Kalyan station. On March 15, head TC Sikandarjit Singh from Kurla and head TC Chitra Waghchaure from CSMT detected a fake TC at Sion station. A similar case was also reported from Sandhurst Road on the same day.
Between April and July this year, the Central Railway caught 3.04 lakh people for travelling ticketless and fines to the tune of Rs 15.9 crore were collected.
