Rail tickets worth over Rs 23 lakh seized in RPF raids on travel agents
BENGALURU: The Bengaluru unit of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has arrested a total of 27 agents and seized railway tickets to the tune of Rs 23 lakh in major raids conducted for an entire week across Bengaluru.
Altogether 125 personal user IDs allotted by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for personal use for those who register on its portal has been seized from them.
According to a senior railway official, the exact value of the ticket seizures stood at Rs 23, 35, 548. "Based on inputs provided by our Cyber Cell in KSR railway station, we raided the premises of travel agents and found them using personal ids to book railway tickets. Agents can only book only on the ids allotted to them. However, this restricts the timings they can book online when Tatkal bookings open on the portal. Hence, they misuse personal ids," the official said.
Two IRCTC agent ids too have been seized. A total of 24 cases have been registered against the touts under section 143 (1) of the Railways Act.
This figure also includes the ten agents arrested across Bengaluru on January 28 when tickets worth Rs 7.7 lakh were seized from them, the official added