Bardhaman Dot Com News Bureau
Andal, 09 Sep 04:
The police have arrested a private art teacher and his son from Andal today for their involvement in a job racket that allegedly has sold fake appointment letters to at least ten youths of this railway town during the past few months. The police suspect that the racket is spread up to the Sealdah railway division in Kolkata and a number of railway staffs may have direct attachment with the fake job racket. 

An Andal youth, Sanjay Das, son of Swapan Das, a Durgapur Steel Plant worker was offered appointment as a railway signal operator under the Sealdah railway division against paying a bribe sum worth Rs 1 lakh. According to Sanjay, "my medical tests were done at B. R. Singh railway hospital, Sealdah and a few railway officials also had interviewed me after I was taken there." He said, "I was posted first in the Sealdah station and my postings to different stations changed very frequently in past one-and half month." Sanjay has also served in Birati, Dumdum Cantonment stations during the period. He said, "my movements were restricted and I was not allowed to speak to others except a few chosen railway staffs there."

He smelt wrong when he found that, there was no pay packet for him. He said, "when I was not paid any buck in the first month I inquired and was told that since my training was not completed my salary was not disbursed." The youth underwent through a number of training in those stations during the period. He said, "they used to help me understand the type of signals and colours as those were essential to help my regularisation with the job, they said." But a railway officer of Birati station informed him, that the appointment was fake and there was no vacancy with the station though he was assigned by the brokers there. His father, Swapan Das said, "we paid Rs 1 lakh in two installments and the Andal broker was paid Rs. 40,000 in my presence." 

The police after ensuring an FIR with the Durgapur Sub-Divisional court raided the house of Loknath Singha Roy, a resident of South-Bazaar, Andal and arrested him. His son, Shanu too was arrested. The Burdwan SP, Niraj Kumar Singh said, "we have got sufficient evidence and documents from their possession. We also came to know that a section of railway staffs working in Sealdah division have got direct involvement with the fake job racket." The police seized a number of fake appointment letters with ‘official’ railway seal stamped on those. As many as ten
Andal youths have been victimised of the circumstances, the police came to know. Andal, a very old railway town has got a trend in it’s youths to get appointed with the railway services. The fake job rackets like this naturally has got a mushrooming development here.