A large number of officials and employees of Shohoz Synesis Vicen Jv', a private commercial company which is the online ticket-selling partner of the Bangladesh Railway (BR), is found to be involved in selling tickets through the black market.
Talking about ticket black marketing, Railways Minister Md Zillul Hakim said, “Rail ticket black market is a big syndicate. All tickets are sold out within half an hour of ticket release. Real passengers do not get tickets. This black market syndicate involves outsiders, railway people and people who are in charge of tickets at Shohoz.”
In the latest development, personnel from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and National Security Intelligence (NSI) on Thursday arrested nine people, including four employees of 'Shohoz.com' for their direct involvement in the selling of BR tickets to the people through black market.
They had been selling the tickets at about three times the actual prices of the tickets.
The arrest of the employees of the 'Shohoz.com' on Thursday was not the first instance as several other employees of the same organization had also been arrested several times earlier on the same charges.
Four among the nine people arrested on Thursday are the employees of Shohoz.
The arrestees are Mizan Dhali, 48, the alleged kingpin of the syndicate; his 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.
According to RAB, Mizan and Sohel are the office assistants of
Shohoz while Newton and Sabur are the platform's server operators at Kamalapur Railway Station.
The Rab team with the help of members of National Security Intelligence arrested them from different areas last night, said Khandker Al Moin, RAB's Legal and Media Wing director, during a press briefing at Rab media centre on Friday.
The arrestees confessed to their wrongdoing. They admitted to selling those tickets at two to three times the actual price, he said.
Newton used to provide information, including the precise timing of ticket sales opening, to Mizan and Sohel.
Mizan and Sohel had passwords of a lot of users' accounts with which they booked tickets online and from ticket counters, the Rab official said.
Several agents across the country used to place orders for tickets to Mizan and Sohel. After collecting the tickets, Mizan and Sohel used to send soft copies of the tickets to the agents through messenger or WhatsApp, the Rab official said.
Moin said that Mizan, who had been working with Daffodil, Cns.bd, and Shohoz since 2003, developed strong relationships with agents and ticket counters at various railway stations nationwide. This enabled him to form the syndicate.
In 2003, Mizan joined as an office attendant of Daffodil. As the Bangladesh Railway signed a contract with CNS.bd, he was appointed there as an experienced worker. In 2020, when the contract was given to Shohoz, Mizan moved there, Moin added. Daffodil, Cns.bd are former ticket-selling partners of Bangladesh Railway.
This gang used to black market around 500 tickets daily, he added.
The agents received 50 percent of the profit, while Mizan shared the remaining portion with his syndicate members, which included corrupt employees of Shohoz.
We have information on transactions worth Tk one crore in various mobile banking accounts of the syndicate, he added.
During interrogation, it was revealed that Mizan and Sohel in association with some Shohoz employees and ticket countermen used to sell around 2,000-3,000 railway tickets through the black market during every Eid season.
The syndicate was eyeing a big profit targeting the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr, Rab said.
Contacted, a Shohoz official said it was a malpractice by an individual and had nothing to do with the organisation.
"Shohoz Synesis Vincen JV is in no way involved with any black ticketing. We have cooperated 100 percent with Rab in their mission” Shohoz Founder and Managing Director Maliha M Quadir said.
She said, "We are a system provider, the system is operated by BR. Our system has been vetted by various govt organzations which found no flaws.
As elaborated and confirmed in the Rab press briefing, this is an individual-centric malpractice, not that of an organisation. We are very thankful to Rab, NSI, law enforcement agencies and Bangladesh Railway for their efforts to curb black market ticket sales."
Wing Commander Khandaker Al Moin, Legal and Media Wing Director of RAB, on Friday said, during preliminary interrogation, the arrested persons admitted their involvement in black marketing of train tickets.
At the press briefing, he said, “Shohoz.com cannot avoid the responsibility of the ticket black market. There were many complaints against them earlier.”
Earlier, in January RAB arrested 14 people with more than 1,200 black market tickets from the capital. Train tickets were sold in the black market with the connivance of unscrupulous railway station employees, officials of Shohoz, server room and IT personnel.
On April 27, 2022, RAB-1 arrested Rezaul and Emranul. Rezaul was the system engineer at Shohoz.com. Rezaul used to remove 2000 to 3000 tickets from the server every Eid season. Later he used to sell these tickets for Tk 10 lakhs to 12 lakhs.
On the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, intelligence officers of NSI and RAB have already started working to prevent black market of railway tickets.