Suresh Tripathi, the editor of "Railway Samachar", has been summoned to Delhi by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday. It's the third time in six months that he has been called by the agency in connection with cases of alleged corruption in the railways. The previous two occasions were harrowing experiences and this time the 55-year-old journalist is equally distressed.
"I tried requesting the investigating officer, Arunendra Kumar, to push the date since there is so much to do, but he refused," says Tripathi, who lives in Kalyan. As a result he had to complete the work on the edition of Railway Samachar earlier than scheduled.
What has the journalist done?
Tripathi launched the fortnightly newspaper in May 1997. Railway Samachar has tried to focus on wrongdoings in the railways.
"My newspaper has always tried to highlight corruption in the railways. We ran a series of articles on the zone-wise collections of the RPF," he says. "After two reports were published we received warnings to stop. But spurred by our coverage people were actually coming forward with more information and evidence, so we continued. Till 2011 we had published stories on money being charged for transfers and plum postings."
Whom did it affect?
Now, he believes he is being made to pay for this. Tripathi alleges that he is being harassed by the CBI at the behest of the head of the agency, Ranjit Sinha. He says Sinha is hitting back at him for the series of exposes in the Railway Samachar that led to his unceremonious repatriation as director-general of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
Soon afterward several RPF men were caught in a CBI raid at Kurla station taking money from passengers for getting into unreserved bogies. "At the time, the CBI raid confirmed what he had reported. In fact the agency said that the daily collections at Kurla were more than Rs70,000 a day!" Tripathi recollects.
Soon, Sinha had to go. "Though the orders clearly said he should not be given a new posting for six months, the orders were disregarded and in less than nine months he went back to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) from where he had come on deputation. In November 2012 he was appointed CBI director."
Railway Samachar unearthed a long trail of corruption under Sinha's watch and for this Tripathi received threats repeatedly.
What was the consequence?
On May 1 this year, the CBI raided Tripathi's house and office late in the night. "I was not allowed to take even my asthma medication along with me when they drove me to their Tanna House office in Colaba at 2am. In the morning they told me I would be interrogated at the CBI headquarters in Delhi and I was taken there."
He explained he felt the whole thing dodgy. The CBI officers asked him for money for his ticket by the August Kranti Express to Delhi. "If this was official why were they not buying the tickets on behalf of the CBI. And if it wasn't, why did they bother to get my ticket confirmed in the VIP quota?"
Tripathi shudders as he recalls the week-long episode. "I wasn't carrying anything, not even a toothbrush. The money went on the ticket and I didn't have any to buy medicines."
On May 11, just as suddenly as he had been picked up, he was asked to go, after a warning to "stop writing anything against our saheb". But Railway Samachar has continued with the exposes.
What was the railways' response?
"On August 18, Arunendra Kumar met Sinha and on September 21 the Railway Board vigilance section issued letters 'on the recommendation of the CBI' to railways staff to stop all contact with Tripathi, warning them of dire consequences," says Tripathi.
A senior Central Railway official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, "They had Tripathi's call records and had zeroed in on railway personnel who called or received calls from him."
When dna called the CBI public relations officer Kanchan Prasad for a comment, she asked for a questionnaire. Subsequently, she said in a text message: "CBI has registered a regular case against the person. The case is under investigation and it will not be appropriate for me to comment. If there is any personal grievance, he is advised to give his complaint in writing to the investigating officer or his superiors."
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