Chennai engineer in UP Jail after falling for Railway job trap

CHENNAI: An engineering graduate from the city who paid Rs 12 lakh for a ticket collector job (TTE) in the railways was provided bogus railway ID card and duty pass, which has landed him in jail in Uttar Pradesh. Chennai police on Saturday arrested a friend of the man, M Manimaran for luring him into the trap and cheating him.

Family members said that S Suriyaprathapan is in jail in Uttar Pradesh for more than 120 days now. “He got married only a year ago, ” said a relative.

A resident of Villivakkam, he was working as a contract employee with Chennai metro water and sewerage supply board, but his family members were pestering him to get a permanent job. In the beginning of this year, the arrested person Manimaran had approached Suriyaprathapan saying that he can get him a permanent job in the railways through central minister’s quota, police sources said.

Manimaran had claimed that he is well acquainted with a leader of Lok Jansakthi party and he can get him a job. “To make Suriyaprathapan believe, he used to make video calls with a man who claimed to be a senior railway official. Further, Manimaran took him by flight to Lucknow to meet the ‘official’ which further made the family members believe that the job offer was genuine, ” a relative told DT Next.

On reaching Lucknow in April, Suriyaprathapan was provided a railway ID card, joining letter, duty pass, service book.

On April 14, the family members received a phone call from the Lucknow police stating that Suriyaprathapan has been arrested as the ID card, joining letter and other documents in his possession were fake.

According to police, the victim’s mother, Thillaivani pledged her jewellery to arrange the Rs.12 lakhs to be paid for the job. Based on her complaint, ICF police booked Manimaran and two others under sections of IPC including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery) among others.

According to a family member, Suriya’s father Sirarthanan himself is a retired railway employee and he fell ill and was hospitalised on learning that his son was cheated and languishing in jail.