The tickets booked online by Mohiuddin Roni, a fourth-year student of Dhaka University's theatre and performance studies department, were cancelled on the account of failing to complete the online payment in the stipulated time.
According to Bangladesh Railway, online payment needs to be completed within 15 minutes of booking a ticket.
However, Roni had paid for the ticket price only after the stipulated time was passed. That is why his ticket was automatically cancelled and sold to another customer, reports Bangla Tribune.
Later, Roni got his money back within three days even though it takes eight working days as per the rules.
Still, the Dhaka Univerisity student filed a complaint to the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) against Shohoz, the ticketing partner of Bangladesh Railway, claiming that he fell victim to its dodgy e-ticketing system.
Based on the complaint, the department imposed a fine of Tk2 lakh for mismanagement in ticketing.
What happened that day
According to sources, on June 13, Mohiuddin Roni booked four tickets – seat numbers Ka 9, 10, 11, and 12 – of the Rajshahi-bound Silk City Express.
He booked the ticket at 8:36am. However, Roni completed his payment of Tk2,680 through bKash at 9:37am.
At 10:14am, Roni sent an email to the railway support department complaining that he did not get his ticket.
The railway authorities requested him to send the necessary documents for the ticket he had bought in a return mail at 10:16am.
However, Roni did not submit any documents in support of his claim till Tuesday, despite the prompt response of the authorities.
DNCRP complaint
In the complaint filed with DNCRP, Roni mentioned that he did not get the tickets even after paying for them online and later went to the counter to find out that his tickets had been sold to someone else.
He further alleged that his money was deducted from bKash without any prompt or password.
Shohoz on Tuesday submitted a reply to the DNCRP against the complaint filed by Roni.
DNCRP Assistant Director (Complaints) Muhammad Hasanuzzaman received it on Wednesday on behalf of the department.
On that day, after the hearing, DNCRP fined Shohoz Tk2 lakh for mismanagement.
According to the Shohoz’s response, Roni failed to pay the ticket on time and it became available for sale as per the rules.
Investigation revealed that ticket No Ka-9 was sold from Counter No 16 of Kamalapur Railway Station (Operator ID No DHK-032).
In reply to the complaint about money being deducted from his Bikash account, Shohoz said that Roni himself had to give the OTP password and pin code to pay for the ticket. Without these, payment is impossible. So, the allegation of deducting money without permission is also not true.
