Turbhe Railway Police Force (RPF) nabbed two men on Monday night for allegedly selling railway tickets booked via IRCTC website. The accused are Rajkumar Jaiswal (34) and Abdul Kadar Siddique Mondal (25), both residents of Shiravane village in Nerul.
“On receiving information, we sent a fake customer to Raj Communication and Tatkal Money Transfer Shop situated in Sector 1, Shirvane village. The owner of the shop, Mr. Jaiswal provided reserved railway e-tickets to our person and charged him ₹600 extra per ticket. It was clear that Mr. Jaiswal was conducting an illegal business of rail reserved e-tickets and we arrested him,” Inspector Lokesh Sagar from Turbhe RPF said.
The police seized 13 tickets meant for future journey worth ₹25,478 and 61 used tickets worth ₹1.14 lakh, along with one laptop and four mobile phones, he said. Mr. Jaiswal confessed that he sold the tickets with ₹600 commission on each but Mr. Mondal booked them.
Mr. Mondal, who was called to the shop on the pretext of some work, was nabbed by the police sometime later. Around 16 tickets of future journey worth ₹27,902, a laptop and one mobile phone were seized. “We have found 18 user IDs belonging to Mr. Mondal, which he used on the IRCTC website. Only an IRCTC authorised travel agent can book e-tickets for commercial purposes. Other people, who use their IRCTC accouts for personal use, can only buy five tickets a month,” Mr. Sagar said.
In 2018, Turbhe RPF had registered 15 such cases, arrested 18 people and seized 215 e-tickets worth ₹4 lakh. The accused had been arrested under Section 143 of the Railway Act (unauthorised carrying on of business of procuring and supplying of railway tickets).