In what is emerging as one of the biggest racket of illegal VIP passes ever, the GRP has arrested nine persons in the last 10 days and the hunt is on for several others. The accused include three leaders of the Congress Seva Dal, a former railway employee and a retired officer of the Brihumumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), indicating that the passes have been passed on to almost all sections of society.

Even more disturbing is the claim by the main accused Vikas Pradhan that over 10,000 such passes are in circulation across the country today. In his statemets to the police Pradhan, who claims to be associated with former railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan, has said that most of his customers are well-connected and include mostlypolitical activists or businessmen.

In the latest development in a week which has witnessed dizzying activity after an Express sister publication Jansatta first exposed the crime, the president of the city unit of Congress Seva Dal Chandrakant Dayma was dismissed from the party for his alleged involvement in the racket yesterday.

The GRP has named among the accused Dayma and two other Seva Dal leaders Shankar Kunchikurve and Govind Singh for possession and use of fake passes for their journeys on Indian Railway. The nine persons arrested so far are either businessmen, small-time political activists or retired government employees.

The VIP passes, as these passes are called, entitle the holder to travel in a first-class airconditioned compartment free of cost, along with a companion.

The issue came to light on July 9 when a team led by an alert Chief Vigilance Inspector S N Tiwari detained one Ganpat Dhamne for trying to obtain a ticket using a pass bearing the name of his employer Dayma.Dhamne told the vigilance officers that he was sent to buy the ticket by Giridhari Dayma, the brother of the dismissed Seva Dal president.

Giridhari Dayma, on being summoned, came along with his friend Banwarilal Sharma and produced a Letter of Introduction bearing the signature of a Joint Secretary of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways. Both the certificates were found to be fake. Dhamne, Giridhari and Sharma were taken into custody.

Further investigations by the vigilance department landed a builder S K Mishra and Kunchikurve in its net. A case was filed with the railway police at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on July 9.

Meanwhile, the Kurla railway police arrested a former chief workshop manager R S Pathare when he sent his peon Deepak Pagare to book a ticket using the `VIP' pass. Pathare, ironically, already had a valid railway pass. ``Why he went in for a VIP pass confounds us,'' said R S Tadvi of the CST railway police, who had arrested a former BMC official Poonam Bhojwani when shetried to book a ticket claiming that she was a Rajya Sabha MP and a member of Standing Committee on Expenditure and Vigilance. Investigations have revealed that no such committee exists.

Almost all the accused told the police that they had obtained the passes from one Vikas Pradhan, who owns a firm called P C Tours, and operated from a hotel room at Marine Lines. The railway police raided Hotel Delmar and arrested Pradhan and recovered 26 blank papers bearing the Ashoka emblem.

According to GRP sources, Vikas Pradhan used to bring the certificates from New Delhi and then sell it to customers in various parts of the country. He used to employ a typist in Oshiwara and had produced seals of the Railway Board to add authenticity to his passes.

But his master stroke was another letter-head bearing the title `Joint Secretary of the Standing Committee on Railways' to be used as an introduction by the customers.

During his interrogation Pradhan claimed that he had obtained the papers from a relative of formerRailway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Sunil Bihari, at Paswan's office in New Delhi. Though a special team of the railway police visited Delhi, there was not much progress till date. ``We have confirmed the name, but the persons involved in the crime needs to investigated,'' said a senior GRP official.

According to the police, Pradhan claimed that he bought the certificates for Rs 10,000 each and sell it for over Rs 50,000 per certificate in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. He also claimed that presently over 10,000 such passes are in circulation all over the country.

Eight of the nine arrested persons have been remanded to police custody till July 22. Bhojwani, meanwhile, has obtained a bail claiming health reasons. Meanwhile, Chandrakant Dayma's anticipatory bail application is likely to come up at the Sessions court on Thursday.