Woman held for duping

A 21-year-old woman was arrested on Monday for duping people on the pretext of promising them jobs in the Indian Railways, police said.

“Accused Pinky Shukla used to say that she is a train ticket examiner (TTE) and can arrange a job at the railways for which she used to take money,” said Romil Baaniya, additional deputy commissioner of police (north west).

She was arrested on a complaint filed by Sanjay Sharma, a resident of Mukherjee Nagar. Sharma met Shukla two years ago through a common friend. “Shukla convinced Sharma saying that she had a good relationship with senior officers of Indian Railways and that she can arrange a job to anyone for money.  Sharma requested her to get him a job for which Shukla demanded Rs five lakh.

But later after negotiation settled for a payment of Rs four lakh,” said Baaniya. In the hope of getting the job, Sharma mortgaged his house and his wife’s jewellery to arrange the required cash.  He deposited Rs 49,000 in cash twice in the account of the accused and as well as a cheque of Rs 2,82,000 in Shukla's account.

“After depositing the money, Shukla asked the victim to come to Lucknow to collect his appointment letter. The victim realised that he was duped when the given address was found to be bogus. On inquiry with the Railway Department he learnt that Shukla is not working as a TTE in Indian Railways,” said Baaniya.

On February 4, the police froze Shukla’s bank account and when the accused came to inquire from bank officials about her inability to carry out transactions she was arrested. Cloak room identity card   issued by Western Railways and a cheque book along with an ATM card was recovered from her.

Shukla, a native of Vadodara used to work as an assistant at private parking lots at railway stations. She fooled people by wearing the TTE uniform.