Fake railway job racket busted in Jharkhand, 4 held

Kolkata: The Vigilance Department of South Eastern Railway (SER) on Wednesday said that they have busted a fake railway job racket in Jharkhand and arrested four persons.

An official said that three persons working as clerks at the booking counter at Birbans station in the Chakradharpur Division have been nabbed.

“The three were appointed by members of a fake railway job racket and were told that they were on training as booking clerks at the station for three months for a stipend of Rs 10,000 pm. They were to receive Rs 30,000 after completing the training. The three had paid Rs 21 lakh (Rs 7 lakh each) to members of the fake railway job racket,” a senior SER official said.

Birbans station is situated at Tirildih in the Seraikela Kharsawan district of Jharkhand and is part of the busy Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of SER.

The three bogus booking clerks had been issued fake appointment letters and identity cards by members of the gang and had started working at the station's booking counter from March 11.

“Three vigilance inspectors, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel and a sectional commercial inspector of SER carried out the raid at Birbans station. Apart from the three who had been offered jobs as Commercial Clerk cum Ticket Collector (CCTC), the person who collected the money from them has also been arrested and handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP). An FIR has been lodged against them,” the SER official said.

The officials have not ruled out the possibility of the involvement of railway employees - either in service or retired - in the racket.

Over the last several years, Indian Railways has launched several mass publicity campaigns to create awareness among the youth that railway employment can only take place through the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) through a proper process.

Despite this, youths continue to fall prey to fake job rackets, paying through their teeth, often by selling off property.