Desk Report:

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in separate drives arrested two kingpins and 13 members of railway ticket black market syndicate from different areas of the capital.

The arrestees are- ticket blacker gang leaders Uttam Chandra Das, 30, and Md Selim, 50, gang members Anwar Hossain alias Kashem, 62, Abani Sarker Sumon, 35, Md Harun Miah, 60, Md Mannan, 50, Md Anwar Hossain, 50, Md Faruk, 62, Md Shahidul Islam Babu, 22, Md Jewel, 23, Md Abdur Rahim, 32, Md Morshed Miah, 45, Abdul Ali, 22, and Md Zobayer.

Teams of RAB-3 arrested them in separate drives from Kamalapur and Airport Railway Stations on Thursday (January 25) night. A total of 1,244 train tickets of different routes, 14 mobile phones, and Taka 20,000 in cash were seized from the arrestees.

Disclosing the matter at a press briefing at its Media Center at Karwan Bazar, RAB Legal and Media Wing director Commander Khandaker Al Moin said the arrestees have already confessed their crimes in primary interrogation.

“Selim had been running his gang at Kamalapur Railway Station while Uttam at Airport Railway Station for long. They used to block and subsequently collect the tickets of different trains from railway server and booking counters with the help of corrupt employees. The gang members used to take 50 percent of the ticket blacking profit, the other 50 percent was given to the corrupt railway employees,” Khandaker Al Moin said.

Of the arrestees, Md Selim was involved in train ticket blacking for last 35 years and have seven cases pending against him. He was arrested on numerous occasions, and again got involved in the dirty job after coming out of jail on bail. On the other hand, Uttam was running his syndicate at Airport Railway Station for last 15 years and have four cases pending against him.