Clerk gets four years term for causing loss to railways

The Special Judge for case pertaining to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has convicted Ajmir Singh, former commercial clerk at Alappuzaha Railway Station, for falsifying the accounts of railways and misappropriating a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh and sentenced him to four years' of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 4 lakh.

The investigation found that the accused - while working as commercial clerk at Alappuzha Station of the Southern Railway from April to August 2008 - had misappropriated a sum of Rs. 2.5 lakh by showing non-issue and special cancellation of high value journey tickets, said a CBI press release.

"He used to falsely generate a platform ticket without a customer and instead of taking print out of platform tickets he switched off the printer after giving command for the print of platform ticket. Thereafter, he generated a high value ticket in the system and printed it on the platform ticket, which was already generated," claimed the CBI statement.

As many as 583 fraudulent transactions were detected in the unreserved ticketing system (UTS), said the CBI, adding that the technical manipulation caused an approximate loss to the tune of around Rs. 2.5 lakh to the railways.

A charge-sheet in this connection was filed on August 6.