New Delhi: A 70-year-old man, who regularly used to put a lizard in train food to get free meals from the Indian Railways, was caught at Guntkal Railway Station in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.
A senior divisional commercial manager noticed the uncanny similarity in the modus-operandi in the cases and alerted the latest railway division which fell prey to Surender Pal’s trick.
“He was the same person. He claimed to have found a lizard in the samosa he ate at Jabalpur station on July 14. Then he complained that a lizard has been found in his biryani at Guntkal station. I became suspicious and alerted the senior DCM and shared the man’s photo. He turned out to be 70 plus and did it for free meals,” Basant Kumar Sharma, Senior DCM, Jabalpur, told PTI on phone, adding that it seemed that Pal was doing this for some time.
Guntakal Division
In joint operation one conman was caught who was fleecing the Railway Caterers by claiming lizard in food. He confessed his crime. He did similar trick in Jabalpur Division. Please beware of such elements, who bring Railways in bad light.@SCRailwayIndia pic.twitter.com/pZCX8LfzUd— DRM Guntakal (@drmgtl) July 23, 2019
At Guntkal station, when Pal was accosted by senior officials, he confessed and even recorded a video in which he said he was using a “fish which cured mental illness” for his tricks.
“I have done a wrong thing. I am an old man, I am mentally unstable, I have blood cancer. Please let me go. In Punjab, there is an ayurvedic medicine. I used a fish which cures bone diseases and mental illness,” he is heard saying in the video when officials asked him what did he put in his food.
In the video, officials can be seen talking to the man, explaining to him that railways are a national pride and it belonged to the public. He was chastised for giving railways a bad name. But he was assured that no action would be taken against him if he promised to change his ways.
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Ms Kalinga