PATNA: In an effort to curb touting, the Railway Protection Force on Thursday night apprehended 16 such persons who booked 2082 online tickets worth Rs 54 lakh across the East Central Railway jurisdiction. The arrests were made under 'Operation Thunder' drive across Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern part of Uttar Pradesh.
This is one of the biggest drive launched by the ECR in the recent past to check ticket touting during the peak summer.
Speaking to Express, Principal Chief Security Commissioner of ECR's RPF Ravindra Verma said, "A total of 14 cases of ticket-touting were unearthed by arresting 16 touts who fraudulently booked tickets for different destinations in various trains including the Patna-New Delhi Rajadhani and other premier trains."
A number of RPF teams along with officials of commercial department and intelligence wings were formed and simultaneous raids were conducted throughout the zone on Thursday late evening.
"Tickets booked through fake IDs with different names of estimated fare valued at Rs 54.85 lakh were also seized from the touts," Verma said.
Raids were conducted in Hajipur, Gaya, Daudnagar, Sasaram, Hazaribag Road, Patna, Patliputra, Buxar, Jahanabad, Jamui, (Sakri and Rajnagar) under Darbhanga.
The Operation Thunder was conducted throughout the Indian Railways following the directive of DG RPF.