Ranchi, May 21: The Railways has decided to install CCTVs near boxes where requests for reservation under emergency quota (called VIP quota in common parlance) are submitted.

The step has been initiated after a letterhead of the slain Jamshedpur MP, Sunil Mahto, recently helped the railway vigilance expose a “VIP quota” racket run by a man in Delhi, said sources in the vigilance directorate over phone from Delhi.

Alarmed by the rising number of requests for up to 500 berths in air-conditioned compartments a day by VIPs — mostly UPA MPs — the vigilance directorate was already cross-checking, if the requests were genuine, when Mahto’s requisition came almost two months after his killing, sources said.

The MP was killed in a Naxalite attack in his constituency on March 4, but the request was made on his letterhead along with his signature in Delhi in the last week of April.

This raised suspicion and the directorate laid a trap to arrest the kingpin Brahmanand Mahto and one of his accomplices Mithilesh Kumar. Mahto alias Rahul is from Dhanbad, while Kumar is from Bihar, they said.

Fake letterheads of 50 different MPs, mostly from UPA, along with a computer and scanner, were recovered from the house of the kingpin, sources in the directorate said.

While operating from a cyber café in Lakshminagar in Delhi, the gang managed reservations in trains running in different parts of India.

Rahul sold a berth in AC compartment from Rs 500 onwards and on an average managed 40-50 berths under VIP quota a day. He admitted earning Rs 20,000-25,000 a day, said sources.

“Rahul claims to be active in selling VIP quotas for the past three years. Earlier, he moved from one MP to another to get their bona fide signatures for obtaining berths under VIP quota. But, he started printing fake letterheads since he had to spend a lot of time and money in getting the real signatures. In the meantime, he had developed expertise in duplicating their signature,” sources said.

The duo have been handed over to Parliament Street police station for further investigations.

Sub-inspector N.R. Lamba of Parliament Street police station said on phone from Delhi this was the second time in less than a year when a VIP quota racket running by the natives of Bihar and Jharkhand was busted in Delhi.

Ranchi division senior divisional commercial manager Vivek Shrivastava said such cases were negligible here.