In perhaps one of the most bizarre incidents under the East Central Railway (ECR) here, a travelling ticket examiner (TTE) was arrested when he asked a judicial magistrate to produce his ticket.
According to sources, Judicial Officer Alok Kumar, reportedly posted in Jharkhand, was travelling in the C-1 coach of the Patna-Howrah Janshatabdi Express on Tuesday.
Soon after the train left Patna junction, TTE Raj Kishore Prasad started checking the tickets. When he asked the judicial magistrate to show his ticket, Kumar produced a copy of the ticket and said the original was with a relative who would hand it over to him at Madhupur junction.
The TTE raised a strong objection to this and cited the railway rule which prohibits a passenger to travel with a copy. "You will have to pay fine as you are not carrying the original ticket. There is no provision to travel with a copy of the original," the TTE reportedly told the judicial officer.
An infuriated judge disclosed his identity and asked the TTE to wait till the train reaches Madhupur junction (a four-hour run from Patna station). But the TTE stood his ground and insisted on penalising the judicial officer for flouting rules.
A heated exchange took place between the two and eventually when the train arrived at Madhupur (in Jharkhand), the magistrate asked the Government Railway Police personnel to arrest the TTE. The GRP men apprehended Prasad and put him in the lock-up at Madhupur railway station.
A shocked TTE called up his seniors at Danapur railway division and informed them about the incident. Following the intervention of the senior ECR officials, the TTE was released on bail after furnishing a personal bond.
"Any travel with a copy of the ticket is not valid. The magistrate should have been aware of the rules. The arrest of the TTE, in this case, is highly deplorable. We will apprise the higher-ups in the judiciary about the incident so that there is no such misuse of power again," said the senior divisional commercial manager (DCM) in ECR, Vinit Kumar.
