CHENNAI: Though IRCTC claims its ticket booking portal is secure and immune to threats from external software applications, a travel agent was arrested on Monday for using external software to book tatkal tickets.
R Dipak Shit (30) was arrested a few days ago and 141 expired tickets worth over Rs 5.19 lakh were seized from his ‘Bhai Bhai Bengal’ travel agency in Thousand Lights. Dipak also had 14 other tickets worth Rs 50,657 booked for a future date.
Inquiry has revealed that Dipak was using an illegal software called ANMS, sold online for about Rs 2,600, to book multiple tatkal tickets within a time span of 10 to 20 seconds. The software, officials say, transfers information provided on it to the IRCTC portal for booking while helping the user bypass CAPTCHA codes and bank OTPs.
“The software used by the agent allows ticket booking on six windows at a time on a laptop, each with a different user ID. In the home page of each window, he would key in the passenger and banking details in advance,” said an RPF official, while explaining how it works.
“When booking opens, all he does is click enter and tickets get booked. He has booked 24 tickets in one go.” The RPF official said it was not clear how the information entered on the software’s home page gets transferred to IRCTC portal.
The arrest happened after RPF director general Arun Kumar got an alert from the Railway Board about ‘unusual transactions’. Later, an inquiry was ordered into the matter.
Agents target patients who travel to Chennai
Dipak Shit was arrested based on an inquiry into sources of bank accounts from which large amounts had been paid for e-tickets. “The agent made all his payments through one bank account,” said an RPF official.
Industry sources say there are over 30 travel agents in Thousand Lights which focus on patients coming here for treatment from other States, especially West Bengal and North East.
“Patients and those who accompany them will not be in a position to book the tickets at counters. They mostly purchase tickets from travel agents for double the price,” said a travel agent.
K Baskar, a member of divisional rail users consultative committee, said the complaints regarding manipulation in e-ticket bookings had fallen only on the deaf ears.
When contacted, a senior IRCTC official claimed ignorance about the incident. “In December 2017, when a similar incident happened in Delhi, IRCTC introduced additional safety feature in the portal which disabled the ticket booking in less than 60 seconds,” said the official.