Railway Protection Force arrest man for touting railway e-tickets; alleges terror financing link

This comes days after Gulame Mustafa, a resident of Giridih in Jharkhand, was arrested from Bhubaneswar on January 22 by the RPF and was suspected to have terror financing links.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

PATNA: In another major arrest, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Hajipur in Bihar's Vaishali district arrested a man named Uttam Kumar allegedly involved in touting railway e-ticket.

This comes days after Gulame Mustafa, a resident of Giridih in Jharkhand, was arrested from Bhubaneswar on January 22 by the RPF and was suspected to have terror financing links through the incomes generated from e-ticket touting.

The Hajipur RPF made the arrest on Wednesday evening in Vaishali district following a tip-off by Central Intelligence Agency. 

SHO of Hajipur RPF post-GS Rana told the media that the person arrested at Lalganj was identified as Uttam Kumar, who was involved in touting of e-tickets.

Uttam Kumar revealed during interrogation that he was brought into contact of Gulame Mustafa by a youth named Pankaj Kumar of a neighbouring village.

Pankaj Kumar, who is absconding, has been touting e-tickets with Gulame Mustafa in Bangalore through a prohibited software.

The RPF SHO said that the software, which was developed by software developer Gulame Mustafa, was helping Uttam Kumar in booking 50 per cent of 'tatkal tickets.'

The IRCTC site was being hacked with the help of this software which the central agency is reportedly working to de-configuration.

'Gulame Mustafa and Pankaj Kumar have also been named accused in the FIR lodged under Railway acts in addition to Uttam Kumar, who has been sent to jail on Thursday', the SHO said.

As per a recent media statement of DG ROF Arun Kumar, the RPF in Bhubaneswar had arrested Mustafa and found 563 personal IRCTC IDs and a list of 2,400 SBI branches and 600 regional rural banks where he was suspected to have opened accounts.

He has been interrogated by all central intelligence agencies for suspected money laundering and terror financing.

Hamid Ashraf was found to be the mastermind of this e-tickets touting inter state racket, which is roughly estimated to have generated over Rs 10 to 15 crore per month.

Intelligence sources suspect that he had escaped to a gulf country after arrest of Gulame Mustafa.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com