Mumbai Crime: Navy personnel held for selling illegal railway tickets for Rs 200 commission

Photo for representational purpose

A tradesman mate of the Indian Navy was arrested by the Wadala Railway Police Force (RPF) on Saturday for booking e-tickets and tatkal tickets illegally for a commission of Rs 200 on each ticket.

A tradesman mate is usually employed to work in the production and maintenance section of the dock, ship or submarine.

The accused has been identified as Parej Prabhakar Pimpol, 35, said officers of the anti-tout squad (ATS) of RPF, as per a report in Hindustan Times.

"ATS arrested Pimpol from GTB Nagar station when he was waiting for a railway clerk to hand over the tickets he had booked illegally," said DH Patil, inspector, Wadala RPF. Around 13 e-tickets worth Rs 35, 693 were seized from Pimpol, he added.

Officials said that Pimpol had joined the Indian Navy in 2016 and was working as a tradesman mate. A few months later, the Railways had given a Passenger Reservation Centre at Navy Nagar to the Navy and asked their men to run it for Navy ticket bookings. As Pimpol knew how to operate a computer, he was given training by a Railways clerk named Vinod Kumar for three days. After the training, Kumar allegedly told Pimpol to book tickets illegally for commuters who were ready to pay Rs 200 for each tatkal ticket which Pimpol did from his personal mobile phone and user IDs.

"On Saturday, when Pimpol went to GTB Nagar railway station to hand over the e-tickets to Kumar, he was caught by RPF ATS," said Patil. When his bag was searched, police found a diary in which the accused had written his user IDs and other details of passengers whose tickets he had booked through tatkal.

Police is now questioning Kumar. They are also trying to find out whether more Navy personnel or tradesman mates are involved in illegal ticket booking.