The investigations into one of the biggest ticket touting scams has now come to hit the people who might have booked tickets through these arrested touts as the railways has gone ahead and blocked over 3000 tickets as part of the scam.
Who booked these tickets?
All these tickets have been booked by a cartel of agents using an automation software that allowed these agents to make multiple bookings on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website in the same time that a bonafide passenger could upload one form.
What will officials do?
Railway officials said that as the ticket details get ferreted out from the computer folders and pen-drivers confiscated from the touts, the commercial department of Central Railway will go ahead and block them.
What about those already arrested?
In another boost to the investigating RPF team, on Wednesday the Railway Court at CST extended RPF custody of developer of the software Kulbir Singh, another Kalpesh Shah who was using it extensively and Guru Patel who was marketing it to touts, for another three days.
What is the RPF's plan of action?
RPF officials sounded confident that they would be able to lay their hands on more agents and tickets in the next few days. So far ten agents, including these three, have been arrested by the RPF in raids being carried out in different parts of the city. A team of 40 personnel from the RPF, the commercial and vigilance departments of CR are investigating the case and raids so far have helped the RPF confiscate 30 CPUs and an equal number of laptops and mobile phones.
Which are the vulnerable spots?
A senior railway official said that the normal tickets- the ones booked from passenger reservation centres- from these touts has shown that they have a preference for Santa Cruz, Borivali and Saphale railway stations. "It just shows that smaller stations with passenger reservation centres and post offices with the facility to reserve long-distance tickets are vulnerable and the railways should do something about it," said an RPF official.
Story so far
The RPF unearthed one of the biggest touting scams in the recent past on the railways with the arrest of a software developer Kulbir Singh who created an automation software that allowed agents to make multiple bookings on the IRCTC website. It has also given a wake-up call to IRCTC authorities to come up with some remedy so that such software can be blocked by the IRCTC website while tickets are being booked.
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