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Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate police, which arrested an employee of East Coast Railway (ECoR) from Jharkhand today on the charge of defrauding Rs 22 lakh from five youths with a promise to provide them a job in the Railways, suspects involvement of a racket of some ECoR officers and staff in this shady deal.
The arrested has been identified as Kishore Chandra Behera, an electrician, working in the Bansapani Division.
Talking to media persons, a female candidate said five persons including her had given Rs 22 lakh to Kishore for Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) job in 2013. “He had given us the appointment letter and joining letter in which the nature of post and the date of joining was mentioned. When we asked them how these appointments are made, he said these jobs are earmarked as General Manager’s quota”, she added.
Asked how she could come to know that it was an act of fraud she said some days before date of joining, Kishore had told her and other four persons over phone to return the appointment letter.
“He said he would provide them another appointment letter and asked us to show it to the officer of the Khurda Railway Division. After he told us, we realised that there is something fishy in this matter. We told him that we will give him the letter only after joining the post offered to us. Later, he tried to avoid us. He did not respond to our calls and switched off his mobile phone. He also frequently changed his location in Rourkela. We had gone to Rourkela in search of him and tried to contact his family. Finally we could manage to catch him bring him to Bhubaneswar”, she informed.
The duped girl also said she and other four persons had lodged a complaint with Nayapalli police a year ago.
She also alleged that the some senior Railway officials are supporting this man. “One UN Das, a senior ECoR official had strongly backed him. “Even Kishore has told us that he has given the money to Das who is presently posted at Rourkela. While we were desperately trying to contact Kishore, we came to know that he has been transferred to Bansapani Division in Keonjhar district bordering Jharkhand. We later went to Bansapani. There we came to know that Kishore has managed to convince his senior officer. Later, police apprehended Kishore and another staff with Nahak title. While Nahak managed to escape, police arrested Kishore and brought him to Bhubaneswar”, she noted.
The hapless girl further said the five candidates along with her had met chief personnel officer (CPO) KC Bal at his office and found that he has been transferred to Madhya Pradesh. “Later, we went to Madhya Pradesh and met Bal who said the signature mentioned in the appointment letter is fake. When we asked him as to how come he does not know Kishore since he had accompanied him in his car on that day when we had given him the money. We became sure that Bal is another person involved in this racket because Kishore had told us that Bal would provide us the job. The CPO has not taken money from us. It is Kishore who has taken money from us”, she informed.
She claimed that there is a racket involved in this shady deal. If a CPO is involved in this racket, there must be other railway officials and staff involved in this racket.
“We want that there should be a high level investigation to identify those involved in the racket”, she pointed out.
Talking to media persons, Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi said a case was registered at Nayapalli police station in February, 2015. In course of investigation, Nayapalli police came to know about the whereabouts of Kishore. Later a special team of Nayapalli police had camped on Keonjhar-Jharkhand border area since last 5 days. The team finally arrested him and brought him to Bhubaneswar for interrogation.
Asked whether some other railway staff are involved in this incident, the DCP said preliminary investigation has revealed that more persons are involved in this incident. “In course of investigation, we would be able to trace out these persons and take necessary action against them”, he added.
He further said the Commissionerate police is in touch with the police in other districts where Kishore has committed fraud.
Talking about the documents pertaining to the date of interview and appointment letters of the candidates, Bhoi said since Kishore has forged these documents, police has started interrogation of some ECoR officials to know about the origin of these letters and their genuineness.
He also informed that another case of this kind had taken place in Chandrasekharpur recently in which police has already arrested some persons. “Besides police has also come to know about the involvement of other persons. But the involvement of senior railway officials will be known in due course”, he pointed out.
