Lalu orders probe in journalists' ticket racket

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) Taking a serious note of a private channel's report that some journalists had been booking tickets for a girl in Rajdhani Express trains for immoral purposes, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today said he had ordered an inquiry into the ''sordid event''.

On the basis of the TV channel's report, Mr Prasad said tickets were facilitated for the girl on short notice from the media quota.

''The girl is now in police custody and she has alleged that tickets were facilitated for her by some mediapersons,'' he said, adding that the Railway Board had ordered the inquiry in the incident to ferret out all the facts.

Asked to comment on the girl's reported statement that some legislators of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal (U) were also involved in the racket, Mr Prasad said this aspect would also be probed by Railway Board officials.

The minister, however, pointed out that there were some practical difficulties in interrogating all women passengers in train as this would cause a lot of embarrassment and discomfiture to women passengers.

''If Railway officials start asecertaining the identity of all women passengers on a train, they (officials) would only be inviting trouble for themselves,'' he quipped.

UNI