Southern Railways revokes suspension of five staff in parcel theft case

On Friday, orders were issued by the divisional headquarters to revoke the suspension of the staff, who had violated the service rules by allegedly abetting the theft of parcel. A highly placed railway officer confirmed the revocation of the suspension and told DT Next that the suspension was only a disciplinary action initiated to prevent them from tampering evidence. 

“Charge sheet can be served only after revoking the suspension. All five have now been served major penalty charge sheets (standard form 5). If the charges are proven, they could be dismissed,” the officer said.

The employees have also been transferred from Chennai Central to prevent them from tampering evidence. An officer above the rank of the suspended staff would now be appointed as the investigating officer to probe the chargesagainst them.

Meanwhile, RPF has commenced a separate probe in to the missing parcel case. “RPF being the guardian of Railway property will probe the theft of parcel, while the staff have been issued Standard Form no 5 for violating services rules and indulging in irregularities,” the officer reasoned.

Ironically, RPF maintains that no parcel went missing and it was only a case of agents bringing parcels in excess of the booked volume to be sent for free in collusion with clerk. SR officers confirmed that the commercial inspector stumbled upon the scam during an inspection conducted to probe the collusion of clerks and RPF personnel who help agents dispatch parcels in excess of the volume booked by splitting them into batches.

A deputy chief ticketing inspector and four commercial clerks were suspended on November 13 in connection with theft of 11 parcels which were impounded by a chief commercial inspector on suspicion on November 10.