Bengaluru MTC Suspends Three Employees for Diverting UPI Ticket Payments to Personal Accounts

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has suspended three employees for allegedly cheating passengers and siphoning off lakhs of rupees by diverting digital ticket payments into their personal accounts. Instead of directing UPI payments received from passengers to the corporation’s official account, the employees routed the money to their own accounts.

The high-tech fraud came to light during a surprise inspection conducted by field officers in December 2025, shocking the corporation. Disciplinary action has been initiated against two conductors and one driver-cum-conductor from depots in the North East and South zones.

According to the investigation, when passengers attempted to make digital payments, the conductors displayed QR codes from their personal mobile phones instead of the official BMTC-issued scanners. Passengers who paid via UPI were not issued tickets. The conductors exploited the fact that many passengers assume a ticket is unnecessary after digital payment, while some hesitate to demand one.

Preliminary findings reveal that each employee pocketed amounts ranging from 3,000 rupees to 54,000 rupees through this method.

Taking the matter seriously, BMTC has issued strict security directives to all depot managers. Authorities have decided to intensify inspections to ensure that only official UPI scanners provided by BMTC are used on buses. More enforcement squads will be deployed in the coming days to conduct surprise checks across all buses.

Senior officials have also instructed staff to ensure that passengers are issued tickets in all cases and said strict measures will be taken to prevent revenue leakage.