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Nagpur: Even as the summer vacation is drawing towards an end, the travel rush has reached its peak. Taking advantage of the last minute rush many touts dealing in black marketing of railway tickets have mushroomed in the city. On Tuesday, Joint teams of Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Central Railway (CR) and South East Central Railway (SECR) cracked down upon on four agents in Chandrapur district on Monday seizing 156 e-tickets allegedly procured through illegal means through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The RPF teams have also seized materials worth around Rs4.86 lakhs which included computer systems and cash.
The RPF teams raided the gift and grocery shop of Prashant Akotkar and also e-suvidha centre of Ranjeet Sawaithool at Siddharth Nagar in Chandrapur. These agents had been charging commissions from their customers in the range of Rs200-500 to issue them e-tickets booked through IRCTC. The RPF had so far conducted several raids in and around city and also in Jabalpur.
During the raids, RPF personnel had found Akotkar was operating around 12 fake IDs to book tickets through IRCTC. Around 27 e-tickets were confiscated from his possession. Materials, including computer systems, worth around Rs92,755 were seized. An offence was registered against him at Chandrapur RPF police station.
35 e-tickets were seized from Sawaithool’s e-suvidha centre. He was operating with nine fake IDs. Materials, including Rs1.43 lakhs, were seized from Sawaithool’s outlet. Another person, identified as Sanjay Yadav, is learnt to be still at large.
In a separate action at Ghughus, the RPF team had raided the grocery shop of Ashok Madan from where 48 e-tickets were seized. RPF sources claimed Madan also charged commissions from his customers to book tickets from them through IRCTC. Materials worth Rs1.40 lakhs have been seized from Madan’s shop before an offence was registered against him at RPF’s Nagbhid police station.
In yet another action, RPF team seized around 49 e-tickets from the possession of Mohd Haneef Shaikh from his book shop at Ghughus apart from computer systems and other materials worth nearly Rs1.10 lakhs.
