RPF nabs educated men posing as ticket checkers

Hyderabad: Railway passengers must be on guard while dealing with TTEs (Travelling Ticket Examiners) as fake TTEs dressed in Railway uniforms have been doing the rounds in many long distance trains.

Recently the RPF nabbed several fake TTEs and most of them where educated youths. These usually operate night and ask passengers to pay fines on one pretext or the other. RPF officials feel that not only have many passengers lost money, but they might be denting SCR revenues.

“During one of our rounds, we ourselves were asked for extra money by a fake TTE. Since three of our men were not in uniform the guy could not make out that we were from the RPF. We nabbed him red-handed by alerting our men in nearby coaches,” said RPF officer, Vasant Kumar.

On questioning it was found out that the engineering graduate had been doing it along with some others for four to five months. It had been very lucrative as each one of them made around Rs 20,000 in a single night. They get down at stations before the real TTEs come in.

Moreover, what’s surprising is that they wear exactly the same uniforms as bonafide TTEs and also carry the same forms and give them out signed. “These people have been operating as organised gangs and are well informed about trains and stations from where bonafide TTEs generally take over from previous ones, between which stations there is no checking etc. They operate late in the night after the real TTEs have completed checking. Many trains heading towards north are facing this problem as the real TTEs do not wear name badges, and it’s difficult to make out the difference,” the official said.