Duo held for conning commuters as TTEs in Mumbai

Accused used to pose as railway staff, guide victim outside station, flee with their belongings; CCTV footage nails them

Cops with Raju Shah and Vijay Das after they were arrested

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has arrested two men, identified as Raju Shah (20) and Vijay Das (27) for posing as Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTE) and conning commuters. According to police sources, CCTV footage helped nab the culprits on Sunday.

RPF officers had launched a manhunt on Saturday after a passenger filed a complaint with the Surat RPF. An officer said, "On March 18, a commuter, Ravi Kumar, filed a complaint with the RPF that while he was at Surat station, Shah and Das approached him asking for his train ticket. Since Ravi had an unconfirmed ticket, the duo -- after introducing themselves as TTEs -- urged him to step outside the station with them. As soon as Ravi stepped out, the duo snatched and fled with his bag that contained Rs 10,000 in cash, his cell phone, a cheque book, his ATM card and several other important documents."

Ravi immediately approached Surat RPF officers, who started scanning CCTV footage. After Ravi identified the culprits, the cops circulated those images to other stations. But the very next day, the duo was spotted at the station.

The officer said, "While monitoring their actions, we spotted them checking tickets of passengers and immediately detained them. We recovered four cell phones and two SIM cards from their wallets, apart from four ATM cards, two wrist watches and Rs 1,900 cash. After Ravi identified the duo, they were handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP) for further punitive action."

The officer said Shah and Das hail from Muzzaffarnagar in UP.

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