Starting August 22, the RPF has begun raiding touts across all five divisions who black market tickets as part of “Operation Thunder”
For all those who intend to book tickets for the upcoming Ganeshostsav or Dusshera at the last minute, be wary as the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Central Railway has begun cracking down on ticket-booking agents. Sources in the Central Railway said that they are not just conducting physical raids, but also for the first time, going after those who use fake IDs and book through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website.
Starting August 22, the RPF has begun raiding touts across all five divisions who black market reserved tickets as part of "Operation Thunder".
"We have arrested 23 touts and seized around 742 tickets valued at about Rs 10 lakh. These raids were simultaneously conducted across Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Nagpur and Bhusaval divisions," said a CR official. The arrested accused were produced before the court, which has remanded them to judicial custody.
OPERATION THUNDER
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- Starting August 22, the RPF has begun raiding touts across all five divisions who black market tickets as part of “Operation Thunder”
- RPF is also taking help of the cyber cell to investigate these cases as the agents use fake IDs to book on IRCTC
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Senior officials said that the raids will continue in the coming week to ensure that the reserved tickets are available to the general public.
In a first, the RPF has also started taking the help of the cyber cell at Pune to investigate these cases as the agents sometimes use fake IDs to book the tickets on the IRCTC portal. "Until now, we had been confiscating laptops and hardwares from the touts. Now, we are also tracing the transactions made by them in the past," said KK Ashraf, Senior Divisional Security Commissioner (Mumbai), RPF.
The RPF is also preparing for fake bookings done before Dusshera as well. Sources said that they are doing background checks on these agents and drawing up their connections in other cities as well. Moreover, public awareness campaigns regarding fraudulent issuance of tickets from Railways booking counters is also being done.
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