Man held for posing as rly ticket examiner
Suresh Prajapati, a former train attendant, was caught on a Patan-Mehsana train
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Sunday, June 20, 2010 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=20100620201006200238047631ecf611)
A man posing as a ticket examiner on a Patan-Mehsana train was arrested on Friday afternoon. Suresh Prajapati, a former train attendant, was arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Mehsana railway station after passengers exposed him.
According to railway officials, the train was between Patan and Mehsana when passengers of one of the compartments were asked to produce their tickets by Prajapati, who wanted to illegally extract money from them.
After he left the compartment, the real ticket examiner entered. This raised passengers’ suspicion. They enquired with the examiner why tickets were being checked twice.
The ticket examiner said that there was no extra checking and that he had just entered the compartment. Passengers then started to look for Prajapati. When train stopped a station between Patan and Mehsana, passengers spotted Prajapati on the platform.
Prajapati tried to escape
“He tried to flee when passengers approached him. He, however, was caught and handed over to the GRP,” an assistant commercial manager (ACM), Darshit, said.
During questioning, Prajapati revealed that he was once an attendant in an AC compartment. After he lost the job, he came up with the idea of posing as a ticket checker. His initial attempts to extract money from passengers without tickets succeeded, so he continued to pose as a official.
This is not the first time a fake railway official has been arrested. Such incidents have been reported in the past. “We have told passengers to demand identity cards from suspicious-looking people,” a senior divisional commercial manager, Dinesh Chanchodiya, said. “Whenever passengers pay a fine, they should ask for receipts from the ticket examiner.”
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Sunday, June 20, 2010 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=20100620201006200238047631ecf611)
A man posing as a ticket examiner on a Patan-Mehsana train was arrested on Friday afternoon. Suresh Prajapati, a former train attendant, was arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Mehsana railway station after passengers exposed him.
According to railway officials, the train was between Patan and Mehsana when passengers of one of the compartments were asked to produce their tickets by Prajapati, who wanted to illegally extract money from them.
After he left the compartment, the real ticket examiner entered. This raised passengers’ suspicion. They enquired with the examiner why tickets were being checked twice.
The ticket examiner said that there was no extra checking and that he had just entered the compartment. Passengers then started to look for Prajapati. When train stopped a station between Patan and Mehsana, passengers spotted Prajapati on the platform.
Prajapati tried to escape
“He tried to flee when passengers approached him. He, however, was caught and handed over to the GRP,” an assistant commercial manager (ACM), Darshit, said.
During questioning, Prajapati revealed that he was once an attendant in an AC compartment. After he lost the job, he came up with the idea of posing as a ticket checker. His initial attempts to extract money from passengers without tickets succeeded, so he continued to pose as a official.
This is not the first time a fake railway official has been arrested. Such incidents have been reported in the past. “We have told passengers to demand identity cards from suspicious-looking people,” a senior divisional commercial manager, Dinesh Chanchodiya, said. “Whenever passengers pay a fine, they should ask for receipts from the ticket examiner.”
