Deepak Kumar Goswami, the arrested railway booking clerk. (Ananda Das)

Dhaniakhali (Hooghly), Dec. 9: A railway official was caught selling fake tickets after declaring the computerised booking counter at a Hooghly station closed.

The head booking clerk at Belmuri in the Howrah-Burdwan chord line tried to box the railways’ anti-fraud officers and flee when caught.

Deepak Kumar Goswami, around 50, was arrested. Over 100 fake tickets were found stuffed in his pockets.

A railway employee, posted to catch the fraud, bought four tickets — one for Howrah and three for Rampurhat in Burdwan — this morning: all from Goswami’s pocket.

A team comprising anti-fraud and vigilance officers of the railways then stormed the ticket counter and challenged Goswami, who tried to flee but was overpowered.

“We found about 100 fake tickets in his pocket. When told to show records of the tickets sold from the counter, he could not,” said Haradhan Das, a Railway Protection Force inspector.

“Manual tickets can be issued only if the there is link failure in the computer-based ticketing system,” he added.

However, at Belmuri, about 45km from Calcutta, the computerised counter, launched in August, is rarely open. Most tickets were being sold manually for months.

A railway spokesperson said the stationmaster was not pulled up because he was not involved in selling tickets. “The stationmaster is in charge of train operations. Ticket booking is looked after by the commercial department.”

The station had been under surveillance for some time. “Sale of tickets from this office was steadily decreasing,” said Somnath Chatterjee, travelling inspector (commercial), Howrah.

Railway sources said Goswami had been working at Belmuri for four years. He was suspended today.

“The tickets found on him were printed at a private press. We are investigating whether other people, including railway personnel, are involved in this racket,” an officer said.