CBI probing alleged corruption in Railways’ VIP quota tickets

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing alleged corruption to the tune of crores of rupees in sale of VIP or emergency quota tickets in the Railways. Officials said that the agency has sought records for the last two years. The officials claimed that even signatures of MPs have been forged to confirm the tickets in some cases.

The agency suspects that certain vested interests within various unions of railways and in alleged conspiracy with private travel operators confirm these tickets against a premium, official sources said here.

The sources said that the agency had some requests which had forged signatures and in some cases even the letter heads were fake.

Initially, the probe may be limited to the national capital but, if required, it may cover other states, they said. CBI has already registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) last week against unknown persons to carry out a thorough probe for misuse of the railway tickets issued under quota to various railway unions.

The CBI had found some related papers while looking into the functioning of railways as part of its probe into the alleged bribery case involving the nephew of former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. In May last year, the CBI had also searched the office of an RPF inspector who had allegedly helped the sacked Railway Board member, Mahesh Kumar, besides shifting some movable assets from his Mumbai residence.