Kolkata, July 17 (IANS) A man, masquerading as a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) was apprehended at the Rampurhat railway station in West Bengal’s Birbhum by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in the early hours of Wednesday.

The Eastern Railway (ER) officials are now investigating whether he was part of a larger racket involved in swindling passengers, while giving the Railways a bad name.

An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of the RPF was patrolling Platform 1 of the Rampurhat station around 3:15 a.m. when he spotted a man acting in a suspicious manner.

“When the ASI confronted the man, he confidently claimed to be an active TTE under the Sealdah Division. He was even flashing a laminated Railway ID card. However, the sharp-eyed ASI noticed inconsistencies on the card and immediately escorted the suspect to the office of the Chief Ticket Inspector (CTI) for further checks,” a senior ER official said.

The man was adamant at first, but broke down upon sustained interrogation. He was identified as Aryadeep Saha, a resident of the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. He confessed that he was not a genuine railway employee and had actually boarded the Gour Express (13153 UP) from Sealdah, posing as an on-duty TTE, before de-boarding at Rampurhat.

This was not the first time that Saha had posted as a railway employee.

A search of his belongings led to the recovery of a digital-age deception toolkit, including two counterfeit Railway ID cards, identifying him as a Ticket Collector (TC) and a TTE, a duplicate Ticket Checking Authority letter forged for his journey, two ATM cards, a money bag with cash, and one 5G smartphone that had photographs of him actively checking tickets at various stations.

“In a stunning revelation, the accused confessed that he had used advanced Gemini AI tools to design and manufacture the highly convincing fake documents and identification cards. RPF officials conducted a meticulous, videographed seizure of all these incriminating items before establishing contact with Sealdah and Howrah headquarters, which officially confirmed that no such TTE existed on their payrolls,” the official added.

The accused, along with the seized articles, has since been handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Sainthia for strict legal action.

After several fake recruitment rackets — some of them involving retired railway staff — were busted, ER has increased vigil at stations and on trains.

A watch is maintained on all people acting in a suspicious manner and many of them are questioned.

“There used to be a time when fake recruitment rackets would issue counterfeit joining letters to unsuspecting people after collecting lakhs from them. In many cases, the people who received the counterfeit joining letters were not even aware that what they were doing was wrong and would start working at stations or other railway offices. This seems to be a different case. We will have to check whether there are others like Saha who are operating at any of the divisions,” the official said.

Authorities are checking how much money Saha collected from passengers.

Officials have also urged passengers not to try and bribe railway staff to evade penalties.

People like Saha take advantage of that and the passengers are the ultimate losers.

“Our security wings are deeply committed to ensuring safe and authentic travel experiences across all networks,” Shibram Majhi, ER CPRO, said, adding: “We urge passengers to remain vigilant and report any suspicious ticket checking activities immediately through official helpline channels.”

–IANS

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