Railway tout given one-week jail term

The Mumbai Central metropolitan magistrate’s court on Wednesday sentenced a railway tout to seven days’ simple imprisonment for selling AC two-tier tickets to needy passengers at exorbitant rates in connivance with a free pass holder. The tout was also told to pay a fine of Rs6,000.

According to the prosecution, the railway board issued a free pass to Rakesh Sharma, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, in 1995. He was entitled to travel free of cost in the AC two-tier class along with two companions. However, Mahajan used to sell the two tickets to needy people in connivance with John D’Souza, a railway tout at Mumbai Central Terminus.

On May 5, 1998, two CBI decoys met D’Souza at Mumbai Central. They told him they wanted to go to Delhi urgently by Rajdhani Express and were willing to pay Rs6,000 for the tickets. D’Souza informed Mahajan, who agreed to sell his tickets. By using Mahajan’s free pass, D’Souza brought three tickets — one for D’Souza and two for the ‘passengers’. Their berth numbers were 31, 32 and 33 in A-4 coach in the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express.

A CBI team then arrested the duo under sections 120b and 420 of the IPC read with section 143 of the Indian Railway Act. Mahajan died of an illness some years ago.