Bihar: 56 cases against touts in 3 months

PATNA: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Danapur division under the East Central Railway (ECR) has detected at least 56 cases of e-ticket touting to book ‘tatkal’ tickets using fake names in the last three months. Of these, 36 were registered with the Patna RPF post alone.
RPF men are keeping a close watch on the activities of touts at all major stations like Patna Junction, Rajendra Nagar Terminal and Pataliputra Junction. According to Danapur RPF commandant Chandra Mohan Mishra, an RPF team arrested two e-ticket touts at the Patna Junction in January and recovered 98 fake journey tickets valued at Rs 4.36 lakh.

“The RPF’s intelligence wing has started monitoring the IP (internet protocol) addresses and location-based services of the suspects to ensure that those involved in booking e-ticket touting are booked under Section 143 of the Railway Act,” Mishra said.

Sources claimed that the touts had changed their modus operandi after frequent raids at their hideouts in Patna, Muzaffarpur and Buxar.

“Danapur DRM Ranjan Prakash Thakur has directed all RPF posts in the division to remain alert and curb illegal activities of the touts,” the RPF commandant said.

Meanwhile, Railway Board member (traction) Ghanshyam Singh held a high-level meeting with ECR officials on Wednesday and took stock of the electrification works in all five divisions of the zone.