RPF lays trap, nabs illegal-poster babas

A special squad of the Railway Protection Force RPF Western Railway Borivli arrested Furkam Malik Abdul Sattar 28 and Shakeel Mohammad Ali 35 residents of Mira Road on December 1 who were behind the Bangali Baba illegal posters They were one of the many groups who claimed to be selfstyled godmen offering solutions to all onersquos troubles from impotency to an illpaying job Furkam Malik Abdul Sattar 28 and Shakleel Mohammad Ali 35 were arrested by the Borivli RPF in a special operation Railway commuters will now be seeing less of these suspicious posters because the RPF is keeping a strict watch on illegal banners in local trains They have started an antiillegal posters drive and are taking serious action against the perpetrators The RPF was able to catch the two accused behind the Bangali Baba posters in a special operation After receiving numerous complaints from passengers and activists about these dubious posters Borivli RPF roped in a special team of four members including a woman constable to catch the culprits The team included inspector Satyajit Kumar assistant subInspector Samaliya Singh head constable Girish Shukla and constable Nisha Kawde Sunday MiD DAYrsquos report on October 13 Posing as a woman in distress Kawde called up the number mentioned on the poster and pretended that she was in dire need of his help The team followed the Babarsquos lead and arrested him and his accomplices ldquoThese culprits donrsquot answer the call immediately They take some time and verify the caller by calling from a different number After verifying they call the victim to the address and extort themrdquo said an RPF official from WR The duo confessed their crimes and said that they had been running this scam to earn make extra money They have been kept in jail for 10 days for not being able to pay the fine Though the railways have been following the case for a long time they were unable to get hold of the nexus From January to November 2013 RPF arrested 166 offenders and collected a fine of Rs 183100 Busted Babas From November 25 to December 3 during the antiillegal posters drive eight people were arrested and a fine of Rs 3400 was collected from them other than the crackdown on the duo Ramchandra Karve a Reserve Bank of India RBI employee took up this issue and started a drive to get rid of such dubious posters in local trains MiD DAY reported about Karversquos campaign in a report lsquoJust one man behind numerous lsquoBangali Babarsquo posters on Mumbairsquos trains finds commuterrsquo on October 13 ldquoI had found that these Babas are involved in many crimes so I took up the matter and started a campaign to save the passengers I have also collected such posters and discovered that there were over 20 Bangali Babas and surprisingly most of them turned out to be aliases of the same personrdquo said Karve Senior chief security commissioner Rajendra Rupnawar of the RPF WR said ldquoWe will continue the drive and we are targeting the main culprits Also if any passenger has any information they can call up on the RPF helpline and share the details with usrdquo Rs 183100 The fine collected from persons putting up illegal posters in trains during JanNov this year 1311 Passengers can call on this number to register a complaint against illegal posters