The Railway Protection Force (RPF) is on the hunt for two men who identified themselves as Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTE) and attempted to extort money from migrant labourers who were heading to Bihar on a special Shramik train on Sunday.
According to the labourers, the men were clad in white shirts and black pants. They flashed ID cards and demanded ₹905 from them. “The ‘TTEs’ insisted that they pay up for travelling without tickets,” said a police officer.
The incident took place as the train was approaching Dharmavaram railway station. However, one of the labourers called an NGO in Bengaluru and informed them about the demand of the ‘TTEs’. The NGO in turn alerted the railway police. But by the time the RPF turned up, the two men had escaped.
The RPF showed the labourers passport-size photographs of all the TTEs operating out of Bengaluru, but the labourers could not identify the suspects as they had worn face masks.
RPF officials are now examining CCTV footage.
