Shohoz.com peon among 9 held for train ticket black marketing

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested nine members of an alleged syndicate responsible for black marketing train tickets at a higher price.

The arrestees include Shohoz.com peon Mizan Dhali, 48, who is the alleged mastermind of the "Dhali Syndicate", said Khandker Al Moin, RAB's Legal and Media Wing director, during a press briefing at RAB media centre in Karwan Bazar today (22 March).

A team of RAB-3, with assistance from the National Security Intelligence Agency, arrested the alleged criminals during a joint operation on Thursday (21 March) in Kamalapur and Sabujbagh areas of the capital, he said.

Other arrestees are: Mizan Dhali's nephew Sohel Dhali, 30, Md Sumon, 39, Jahangir Alam, 49, Shahjalal Hossain, 42, Md Rasel, 24, Joynal Abedin, 46, Sabur Hawlader, 40, and Newton Biswas, 40.

At the time of arrest, a huge amount of train tickets from different parts of the country, eight mobile phones, one NID, one driving license, Tk11,422 were seized from them among other things, RAB said.

RAB director Khandker Al Moin said the arrestees confessed to selling the tickets for two to three times more than the government-fixed price.

"The countrywide train ticket black marketing is being operated under the leadership of Mizan, the mastermind of the Dhali syndicate. This syndicate has been involved in black marketing of almost all types of train tickets of the railway for a long time," Moin said.

The RAB director continued, "Mizan has been associated with the railway ticket booking contractor companies for a long time. He joined Daffodil, a contractor company, as a peon at Kamalapur Railway Station in 2003. Later, when CNSBD was contracted for railway ticket booking, he was reinstated as an experienced worker.

"In 2020, when the contract was given to Shohoz.com, Mizan moved there.

"Due to his long association with the contractor companies, Mizan's acquaintance with the members of Shohoz.com's office at various stations across the country and the employees of major railway stations increased.

"Using this acquaintance, he used to sell a huge amount of tickets through collusion with members of Shohoz.com, ticket counters and other black marketers at various stations."

He also claimed that Newton Biswas, the server operator of Shohoz.com's Kamalapur Railway Station server room, Station Representative Sabur Hawlader and absconding Abdul Mottalib, Ashikur Rahman and some others are involved in ticket black marketing.

"Especially on the occasion of Eid, Puja, weekly holidays and special holidays, Mizan and Sohel used to collect more tickets than usual through various manipulations. They used to sell about 2-3 thousand railway tickets every year through black marketing during every Eid season.

"They were planning to collect more tickets than before the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr.

"The money earned from tickets was divided into two parts, with 50% going to agents, while Mizan shared the remaining portion among syndicate members of Shohoz.com," Moin said.