How 30 contract staff pilfered Rs 69L from Chennai Metro Rail Limited

CHENNAI: At least 30 of the contract staff with the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) are under the Chennai police scanner for allegedly defrauding the CMRL of about Rs 69 lakh in a year by pocketing top-up money from passenger travel cards.

While the cyber crime wing of the Chennai police registered a case three weeks ago -- under sections of fraud and criminal breach of trust -- and initiated investigations, a top official with the CMRL said, “the police investigation will reveal more information; appropriate action will be taken against those involved, including contractors.”

According to sources in the CMRL, the ticketing operators under probe were posted through a station management contract given to two contractors. Of the 41 metro stations that are operational, 20 are managed by a Mumbai-based firm and 21 by one based in Bengaluru.

The fraud came to light during a routine check on the settlements made by a ticketing operator at Thiyagaraya college metro two months ago, when CMRL officials found that some top-up transactions of travel cards were missing in their system. On analysing CCTV footage of ticketing counters, officials found unwarranted booting of the ticketing system multiple times by the operators, during the time of travel card top-ups.

Speaking to DT Next, a highly placed source said, “When a customer submits the travel card for recharge, the ticketing office machine (TOM) operator taps the card on the radio frequency antenna (a machine that allows travel cards to recharge), thus allowing the customer to travel. Right after the card is tapped, the operator should give a ‘Ctrl+Alt+Backspace’ command for the system to reboot.”

Top-up scam: System reboot prevented data backup

Interestingly, this rebooting of the system inside a ticket counter stops the data backup (meaning the details of top-up with the CMRL) from reaching the central computer, the system located at the CMRL’s Koyambedu office. As per sources, this rebooting ensures the details of top-ups cannot be retrieved by the CMRL’s IT department.

DT NEXT has learned that such malpractices were brought to the knowledge of officials in CMRL’s operations department by an employee in October 2024, but they neglected the complaint.

However, as word spread to other departments, the department of information technology and automated fare collection (AFC) in CMRL began investigating the rumours of malpractice in November and found that multiple contract staff have deliberately rebooted the system to avoid data backup and the money pilfered were divided among those involved in the scam.

"The approximate revenue loss to the CMRL while analysing data from all 41 stations from December 2023 to November 2024 is estimated to be Rs 69.9 lakh," according to CMRL’s complaint to the Chennai police.

A preliminary internal inquiry by the CMRL has revealed that at least 17 staff deployed by the Bengaluru-based contractor and 13 staff deployed by the Mumbai-based contractor are those involved in the fraud, and they have been listed as known suspects by the CMRL in their police complaint.

It is learnt that CMRL has urged the two contractors to compensate for the loss incurred by the government. However, the contractors have been forcing the staff working under them to contribute money to pay the CMRL. The new staff have been asked to shell out Rs 30,000 and experienced staff have been asked to pay Rs 10,000, sources said.

THE TOP-UP SCAM

* The majority of the staff under probe were posted at Chennai Central, Thiagaraya College

* The scams also took place at Tondiarpet, Kaladipet, Washermanpet and Anna Nagar East Metro stations

* Sources say the scam was done only on recharge of top-ups of Rs 500 and above