The Railway Protection Force (RPF) raided a travel firm in Vellore for reportedly using software for pre-filling passenger information, bypassing captcha and booking tickets quickly even as regular passengers struggle.
According to RPF sources, following information about such illegal ticket booking happening in Vellore, Birendra Kumar, IG. RPF, Southern Railway and Senthil Kumaresan, Senior Divisional Commissioner, RPF, Chennai formed a special team under Prith Krishnan, assistant commissioner, RPF.
Information about the business activities of travel agents were collected and suspicion arose on Harisankar from West Bengal who runs Ramakrishna tours and travels in Vellore. A search was conducted by Muthupandi, Inspector/Avadi and Nagaraj Sub-Inspector, Katpadi and seized e-tickets, valued over ₹1.75 lakh, computer and other related accessories.
It was found that illegal software called ANMS and Real Mango were used for booking more tickets against the IRCTC rules and regulation. “They fed in details of passengers in the software and upon clicking book tickets, the software bypasses captcha and books tickets in a matter of seconds. At the same time passengers will be struggling to book one ticket. He has also formed multiple customer ids,” said a senior RPF officer.
He also installed apps of Tatkal on his mobile and used to book e-Tickets. Hari Shankar was arrested and police are searching for another suspect Taps Kumar Dhattu. A case has been booked against them. “We are also searching for the owner of software. We will be continuing the raids during the festival season,” said the officer.
