Mumbai: Railway ‘ticket collectors’ taken for a ride, three held in job scam

MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai resident Tukaram Lande and his friend were excited at receiving appointment letters as ticket collectors in the Railways. But after over a year of being given the runaround, the duo realized they had been conned, losing almost Rs 7 lakh each to a Mumbai-based gang.
City police have busted a fake job racket where 18 trainee TCs who did their two-month internship at various railway stations in Bihar were left in the lurch.The city crime branch has arrested Rajeshkumar Tati (28), Manishsingh Udhaybhaan (39) and Seema Sunil Pawar (30) from Andheri who have duped several youths of Rs 7 lakh each by promising them jobs as ticket collectors.
Crime branch unit 11 said it had seized documents, including blank appointment letters, PAN and Aadhar cards, medical certificates, seven mobile phones, debit cards, bank cheque books, and Rs 32,000 cash, among other documents. “We have booked them for cheating, forgery, breach of trust, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy and also under the IT Act. We suspect the gang has cheated more people across the country,” said Chimaji Adhav, senior inspector.
Tukaram has said he met Seema Pawar through his sister. Pawar claimed her employer’s relative held a senior position in the Railway Recruitment Board and he was helping people get jobs.
Tukaram, in turn, told his friend Ramesh Salunkhe. Within a few days, three to four candidates got letters purportedly from the Railways asking them to undergo medical tests at a hospital in Howrah, Kolkata. A fortnight later, they got appointment letters for the post of TC purportedly from Eastern Railways, said DCP A Pathan.
They claim they were given training by one AK Singh at Godda Railway station in Jharkhand. According to the victims, there were 25 more candidates in the room. Police said for two months they even got a salary of Rs 1,820 from the “Eastern Railways”. They then returned to Mumbai and were asked to wait for the joining letter.
A month later, Rajeshkumar called up Tukaram saying he has been appointed TC at Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Tukaram says when he went to Nerul station he was told the letter was fake. Advocate Ajay Dubey said his client Rajeshkumar was being framed and he would prove it in court.