A vigilance squad of the Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has busted what seems to be a fake Employee Free pass racket with the arrest of a 40-year-old private security guard travelling with a fake ‘staff’ card on a bus plying to Kalasipalaya frm Kanakapura depot on Wednesday morning.
The accused has claimed that he printed the card from a facility near Jayanagar and had printed 80 more such cards. The card even had a forged rubber stamp of BMTC depot six manager as he had claimed that he was working as a diesel mechanic at the facility. As many as 50 cases of misuse of bus travel passes issued for KSRTC employees, physically challenged people and students have been detected in 2017 so far.
“He has claimed that he had printed about 70 such cards and was planning to sell them for about Rs 3,000 each. The staff card entitles free travel on all KSRTC buses,” said BNS Reddy, Director, Vigilance and Security, KSRTC.
According to the officials, the accused, T Nagaraju, from Ramanagara district, was working with a private security firm in the city. The vigilance team had apprehended him while carrying out surprise checks on the bus. He had been working with the security firm for over five years and had initially told the officials that he had got the fake pass printed about a year back.
The accused was handed over to the Kalasipalaya police and a case (Cr.No 128/2017) under Sections 465,471 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code for forgery and cheating have been registered. He was later remanded in judicial custody. “We have been conducting periodic drives against ticketless travel and fake bus passes on all major routes,” Reddy added.
KSRTC in 2016-17 conducted surprise checks on 7.74 lakh vehicles in its fleet and has collected 1.4 crore as penalty from 86,876 ticketless travellers.
