Indian Railways’ crackdown on illegal IRCTC ticketing! RPF detects 20 software used to book train tickets

Indian Railways’ crackdown against illegal IRCTC ticket booking software! The Western Railways’ Railway Police Force (RPF) has detected as many as 20 illegal software which were allegedly being used by the touts to book train tickets after the COVID-19 outbreak since the passenger train services resumed from the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. According to Western Railway officials quoted in an IE report, the RPF under PC Sinha, the Principal Chief Security Commissioner has been able to put a curb on the system of touts misusing the official website of IRCTC through cloning software in order to book multiple IRCTC train tickets in a bid to create a fake demand of tickets and sell those off in black market later.

According to Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Western Railways, since the train services resumed from June 2020, remarkable commitment has been shown by the RPF in tackling the menace of e-ticket touting by identifying a total of 20 illegal software and after analyzing the data, more than 344 number of cases of illegal ticketing were registered and in one year, 351 people were arrested. Moreover, the national transporter has also blocked as many as 2050 IDs using the illegal software on the website of IRCTC and seized 6375 tickets in total. A total of 752 touts have been arrested across the Western Railway zone and forfeited tickets, worth an amount of Rs 53.89 lakh, Thakur said.

According to railway officials, among the 20 illegal ticketing software, the most notable one was the ‘Real Mango’ illegal software, which was utilized by touts at the Surat railway station. Thakur further said that after the illegal ticketing scam was busted by the RPF in Surat, 46 cases in total were registered under section 143 of the Railway Act and a total of 48 people were arrested in the scam from across the country, Thakur added. The officials of Indian Railways also informed that to deal with the detection of e-touting cases, a cyber cell has been established at Western Railways’ headquarters in Mumbai.