Travel ticket examiner (TTE) Shafiqul Islam, who was suspended after fining three people who introduced themselves as relatives of the railway minister, has been summoned to explain himself.
He was summoned to the divisional office of Bangladesh Railway’s west zone at Pakshi on Sunday. Shafiqul Islam disclosed this while speaking to Prothom Alo regarding this issue on Saturday afternoon.
Nasir Uddin, divisional commercial officer (DCO) of west zone, Bangladesh Railway, has told sacked TTE Shafiqul Islam that a complaint filed by a passenger was the reason for his dismissal. A passenger named Imrul Kayes lodged the complaint on 5 May, the day of the incident. TTE Shafiqul Islam was suspended on that very day.
That passenger in his complaint has claimed that he got on the train at around 2:15am without any tickets after failing to buy any from the counter. Then the TTE came and asked them to show their ticket. The passenger told the TTE that he could not buy any ticket from the counters and asked for tickets to the TTE. However, Shafiqul demanded Tk 1,500 for the ticket fare of three people. When asked why he had demanded Tk 500 instead of Tk 300 as the ticket fare per person, he demanded Tk 3600 for the tickets. The TTE became more infuriated as the passengers said it was impossible for them to pay that much money for tickets. That passenger also claimed in his complaint that the TTA seemed to be addicted to drugs. He demanded Shafiqul’s punishment.
Asked about this, Nasir Uddin, DCO of Bangladesh Railway’s west zone, said, “TTE Shafiqul Islam has been suffering from a complex and has records of treating passengers badly before as well. As a result, he was suspended following a written complaint from a passenger. The matter is being investigated.
Three passengers boarded an AC berth of Dhaka-bound train from Pabna without tickets.
When Traveling Ticket Examiner (TTE) came, they introduced themselves as relatives of railway minister Nurul Islam Sujan.
TTE Shafiqul Islam fined them for travelling without tickets and they were also removed from the AC berth.
Following the incident, the TTE was given a suspension order over phone and he could not join work on Friday.
Shafiqul Islam is attached with the headquarters of railway’s west zone in Ishwardi.