Dubious ticket refunds to Rs 100 crore

Dubious ticket refunds to Rs 100 crore 

New Delhi: Three days after news reporting fraud to the tune of Rs 100 crore pertaining to dubious ticket refunds, the Northern Railway, taking note of the matter, recommended the railway board to push for a CBI inquiry.

According to well-placed sources in the Northern Railway, a detailed report had been sent to the Railway Board informing how an organised syndicate had duped the organisation by claiming refund on fake tickets. “Report submitted to the Railway Board contains details of how the syndicate used reservation counters of far-flung and remote areas to claim refunds for the train mostly originating from the national capital. Report also recommends to launch a proper investigation across the country to find out the exact amount of losses to the railways,” he said. Northern Railway has also recommended an enquiry by the CBI seeing the pan-India presence of the gang and the modus operandi used by them. “In our report, we have recommended a proper investigation involving law enforcing agency of states,” said Northern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Neeraj Sharma.

Northern Railway’s report suggested that the CBI probe is best suited to crack the case seeing its unique modus operandi and the volume of fraud found to have taken place. “Multiplicity of agencies (state police in their respective state) may weaken or delay the investigation.  CBI, with its pan India network, with the help of local police, can investigate the case in a better way.  CBI enquiry also keep uniformity in the line of investigation across the country,” said a senior official.  Railway officials said the vigilance department of Northern Railway has sent a detailed report to the Railway Board, elaborating on the modus operandi of the gang and the estimated monetary loss that the Indian Railways have incurred in the last several months. Sources said the reports also details how the gang took advantage of a lack of mechanism for auto-update of reservation charts after departure of train from the source station.

Officials found that unidentified syndicates had claimed refund of about Rs 60 lakh, in the last six months, by cancelling tickets of trains originating from Delhi alone.

The gang members received passenger details from insiders and printed fake tickets. They then got these tickets cancelled at remotely located reservation counters after the train’s departure from the source station.

As per the rules, a PRS ticket can be cancelled from any reservation centre across the country and travellers can get 50 per cent refund of the ticket price after two hours of the departure of the train.

Railway authority believes that an early and timely investigation can save the Railways from further loss. “Fraudsters may still continue to claim refund by cancelling fake train ticket without any check from anywhere in the country causing loss to the railway. Early enquiry can help stop losses,” he added. The scam had come to the fore during a check by the vigilance department of the Northern Railway during the last six months.

“As the gang had its presence across all 16 Railway Zones and had impacted loss to Railways of about Rs.100-crore through ticketing scam, Northern Railway feels that separate probes by different state government could lead to a lack of uniformity and delay the probe,” he added.