BENGALURU: In the biggest seizure of train tickets done in a single day in the Bengaluru Railway Division, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) seized train e-tickets valued at Rs 12,57,500 by raiding an outlet in Peenya Industrial Area on Thursday. The tickets were booked by touts by using online software to manipulate the server of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC). Two touts were arrested and sent to judicial custody on Friday.
Senior Divisional Security Commissioner (SDSC), RPF, Bengaluru, Debashmita Chattopadhyay Banerjee told The New Indian Express that the seizure of computers from the office revealed they had created 37 fake IDs to book tickets through the IRCTC website. “This marks our single biggest ticket seizure in terms of value in a day,” she said.
The raid was conducted on Thursday by an RPF team led by Inspector, Crime Intelligence, R D Samudre, and Yesvantpur Inspector Akilesh Tiwari.“Constant monitoring by the RPF cyber cell revealed a few suspicious IRCTC IDs that were repeatedly thrown up. They were tracked by our team and it revealed the Peenya location,” the SDSC said. The previous biggest seizure in a single day was Rs 8,14,451 when a jeweller’s shop in Bandepalya was raided and 292 e-tickets were seize.
The crackdown on touts was intensified by the RPF during Deepavali season. Due to the huge rush of passengers touts are usually busy around this time. Raids conducted between October 26 and 29 resulted in seizure of 1,469 e-tickets worth Rs 16,90,587, in seven crackdowns, according to RPF.
The duo arrested at Peenya have been booked under Section 143 of the Railway Act. Search is on to nab one more person who managed to escape. The New Indian Express had in June highlighted that the use of ‘Red Mirchi’ software by touts facilitated quick booking of tatkal railway tickets across the country.