Pune, Dec 4 (NIE): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), here, has booked two booking clerks at Pune and Kasarwadi railway stations for allegedly siphoning off Rs 4.2 lakh in two years by manipulating the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS).
An FIR in this regard was filed by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB). The ACB has identified the accused as Guleshahewar Shaikh, who works as senior clerk at Pune Railway station booking office, and Khushbu Bagade, a junior clerk at the Kasarwadi Railway station booking office. The CBI had received information about the alleged fraud in the booking of unreserved tickets. An CBI official said involvement of more railway employees is suspected.
As per the FIR, “The two entered into a criminal conspiracy between 2014 and 2016, with each other and other unknown persons, and in pursuance thereof misappropriated amount, which was due on the Indian Railways, by dishonestly and fraudulently manipulating the UTS and causing wrongful pecuniary loss of Rs 4.2 lakh to the Indian Railways and a corresponding wrongful pecuniary gain to themselves.”
“The two used to give commands for printing low-value platform tickets in the UTS, but not allow the ticket to print on the respective stationery. Thereafter, they printed normal high-value tickets on the request of passengers on the said low value ticket (not printed earlier), and hand over the same to the passenger and collect the fare in cash,” read the FIR.
“They used to show the next ticket stationery, on which the high value ticket was supposed to be printed, as ‘non issued’ on the pretext of a printing error and then used to cancel the same through the next stationery. In this manner, the two used to misappropriate the difference between the fare for high value and low value tickets,” stated the FIR.
It added, “It is alleged that during 2014-16, Shaikh committed such misappropriation in 198 instances and thereby misappropriated a total of Rs 2.18 lakh,whereas Bagadem is appropriated a total of Rs 2 lakh in 417 instances.” The CBI is now probing whether more people were involved in these misappropriations. The two women have been booked under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 467 468, 471 (Forgery) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.