Outsider found issuing train tickets at Mumbai station; 4 railway staffers suspended

Mumbai, Jul 5 (PTI) Four railway employees have been suspended after a random person was found issuing train tickets at a station in Mumbai, the Western Railway said on Saturday.

Acting on inputs about an outsider illegally operating a ticket counter, a railway vigilance team raided the Mahim station premises in the western suburbs around 7 pm on Friday, officials said.

The person, identified as Vinod, was selling tickets on behalf of regular railway staff, they said.

Terming the incident a “serious breach of railway rules”, the Western Railway suspended four staffers and handed over Vinod to the Railway Protection Force (RPF).

“The matter is under investigation,” said Vineet Abhishek, WR’s chief public relations officer.

According to officials, before making its surprise entry to the booking office on Platform No. 1 of the Mahim station, the vigilance team observed the functioning of the three active ticket counters for about one and a half hours.

When the team entered the office around 8.30 pm along with the station master, they discovered a non-railway individual issuing tickets from a counter and handling government cash without any formal authorisation.

The team also found that all designated booking staff were sitting together in a room inside the office and having snacks, while the outsider managed ticket sales, an official said.

The outsider told the team that the regular staff had asked him to sell tickets, which is a direct violation of railway norms, the official said.

The vigilance team recovered Rs 2,650 from him, and the money was deposited with the government, he said.

The suspended staffers have been identified as “Angad Devidas Dhawale (CBS/General), Ramashankar R (CBS/evening in-charge), Ganesh Patil (CBS), and Vijay Devadiga (CBC)”, the official said. PTI KK NR