Nagpur: In what is said to be one of the biggest seizures in the recent cases of railway ticket black marketing in Nagpur, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Central Railway, on Sunday raided an office of travel company and seized records of e-tickets and regular tickets worth Rs 65 lakh. The squad has arrested a travel agent, identified as Shatrughan Singh (38) from his Manewada-office.
The latest action is part of the RPF’s nationwide crackdown on e-ticket agents termed as ‘Mission Tatkal’. RPF squad, under senior divisional security commissioner Jyoti Kumar Satija and inspector Virendra Wankhede, raided Singh’s office. It came across 212 fake IDs used by him to prepare Tatkal and premium Tatkal e-tickets for selling them at a premium.
Two softwares, Red Mirchi and Make Tatkal App, were also recovered from the seized computers and laptops found in the office. In addition printers, routers and dongles were also seized. The raid was conducted by RPF with assistance from Ajni police. It is learnt that the RPF have sent an officer of the rank of IG on deputation to IRCTC as GM (security) for co-ordinating and rendering legal assistance in such cases nationwide. They have so far registered 17 cases and arrested 20 persons during e-tickets raids kicked off earlier this year.
RPF chief Satija said 65 live e-tickets were found at Singh’s office worth Rs 1.60 lakh. They were later cancelled following intimation to concerned department of the railways. “Around 860 old e-tickets worth around Rs 18.68 lakh were also traced in the memory of computer system at Singh’s office,” Satija said.
“Record of around 1900 regular tickets were found in a register dating between July 1, 2016, and May 2017. These tickets were made through regular means and their worth was around Rs 43.82 lakh,” Satija told reporters at RPF post in Nagpur railway station. “We are referring the case to IRCTC for recovering deleted and concealed data for tightening the screw on this racket,” he said.
