Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Rly. job racket may have wider ramifications

By K.T.Sangameswaran

CHENNAI April 6. The nabbing of two railway employees by the CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch on Wednesday appears to be more than a ``trap case'', as it is called in police parlance, and is likely to have wider ramifications.

A preliminary probe by the investigating agency has revealed that the group of railway employees had obtained various amounts illegally from nearly 70 persons after promising them that they would be given railway jobs, CBI sources told The Hindu.

Asked whether the connivance of railway officers is suspected in the racket, the sources explained that it was too early to say that. ``At this stage, we can neither confirm nor deny the hand of senior officers''. However, a detailed probe would throw light on the crime and its deeper ramifications, if any. ``But, it appears it is more than a trap case'', the sources said.

Investigation so far revealed that the four employees, including a Senior Section Officer in the Divisional Railway Manager's office at Palakkad and a Junior Engineer of Palakkad had joined hands and were engaged in the illegal activity of allegedly collecting money from job seekers hailing from Erode, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Walajah, Vaniambadi, Jolarpet and Arakkonam and the amounts ranged from Rs.25, 000 to Rs.70, 000. The illegal activity is suspected to be going on for the past six months. Only after examining the job seekers could the entire details be obtained. But the investigating agency may find the going tough, as those hunting for jobs may not be forthcoming about the bribes they had given.

To win the confidence of job-hunters, the group used to give railway notes to them and it was on one such note that N. Ravi of Arakkonam, a job seeker, was intimated that he had been provisionally selected for the post of a peon.

The contents in the notes were presented using a computer and the blank notes papers had been removed from the official letter pad. As of now, the CBI had registered a case against the four employees under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) IPC and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

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