6 sell overpriced travel tokens to migrants, held

They had sold 42 travel tokens priced at Rs 750 each for Rs 1,000; they were later released on bail

By Asik Banerjee

The desperation to go home has cost quite a few migrants dearly, with fraudsters taking advantage of their situation. Within a week of a case of migrants being duped with travel tokens, Shaherkotda police detected a case where fraudsters were selling overpriced tokens to migrants. Shaherkotda police had received a tip-off about unscrupulous elements selling tokens meant for travelling at much higher price to migrants who were desperate to return home. The fraudsters used to purchase the tokens for Rs 750 and sell these to the migrants for Rs 1,000, pocketing the additional Rs 250 per token. Based on the tip off, a trap was laid. A Shaherkotda police official went to meet the suspects at the AMTS bus stand near Memco toll naka posing as a migrant on Saturday. As expected, they were selling tokens at a higher price. They were arrested. The accused were identified as Rakesh Shah, Mrutyanjay Bansi, Chotukumar Yadav, Lakhendra Gupta, Shyam Singh and Shaileshkumar Israni.

Talking to Mirror, Shaherkotda PI VD Vala said, "The tokens are available at the distribution centre for Rs 750 each. The accused used to sell these to Rs 1,000. Initial investigation has revealed that the accused had till now sold tokens to around 43 people who were from Bihar."

Vala further added, "All the accused were arrested and later released on bail. Currently we are investigating to whether more persons were duped by the accused."

On May 19, Ramol police had registered a case of similar fraud where a migrant was found to be carrying a duplicate token at the time of boarding a train. He had bought it for Rs 1,000.