Title - Railway touts forge Union ministers' signs to confirm wait-listed tickets

Railway touts are forging letterheads of Union ministers and parliamentarians to get tickets confirmed. Ticket agents have been found using the forged letterheads of Union ministers, including Ajay Maken, S, Jaipal Reddy, Anand Sharma and K. C. Venugopal, to get confirmed wait- listed rail tickets.

While railway touts are charging at least more than double of the original charges for tickets, they have been found using confirmed reservation on the tickets in waiting category. The racket is spread from Delhi to UP as touts have been found indulging in this fraudulent activity. Moreover, these touts were found using the landline number of Parliamentary Annexe to forward the requests to the office of northern railway.

The letterhead of Ajay Maken was forged in Delhi while touts based in Varanasi forged other letterheads.

Mail Today recently carried a comprehensive report about the touts ruling at New Delhi railway station and making money while offering confirmed tickets to people.

In both the instances, two separate cases have been registered by the economic offences wing ( EOW) of Delhi Police. While one case of cheating was registered on the complaint of private secretary of Maken, other was lodged by the vigilance department of northern railway.

During mid- May, private secretary of Maken got a copy of the forged letter head and finding anomalies, he reported the matter to the EOW. "We are still investigating into it. We suspect the role of agents, but this can be misused by others as well," added the officer.

In other cases, the matter came to light through seven reservation requests on the letterheads of the Union ministers and parliamentarians.