The anti-touting team of the Rajkot Division of Western Railway (WR) apprehended six accused and busted an inter-state gang involved in ticket touting, development and sale of illegal software and use of fake user IDs of IRCTC for booking tickets illegally.
The WR Railway Protection Force (RPF) seized 1,42,140 ticket valued at Rs 28,57,10,555 from the six accused. Of these, over 1,670 tickets are live (unused). These tickets have been blocked and the amount has been forfeited by the railways. Passengers who booked tickets through the gang were not able to t use them for travel.
“The first arrest was made in May 2022. The team from Rajkot Division apprehended COVID-X software user Manan Vaghela. During sustained interrogation, he admitted to purchasing the software from Kanhaiya Giri through Telegram,” said a WR official. Subsequently, details of the online transaction made by the accused using Paytm were thoroughly examined and on the basis of the same, the RPF arrested Kanhaiya Giri from Mumbai. Giri admitted to selling and distributing multiple illgal software, including COVID-X, ANMSBACK and BLACK TIGER. The details of other sellers / users were also collected as incriminating evidence from Giri's computer.
“The team also received conclusive information about software admin Abhishek Sharma from Vapi and nabbed him. He voluntarily confessed to being an integral part of the tout syndicate and indulging in the business of selling illegal software through Telegram,” an RPF official said, adding that another gang member, Aman Kumar Sharma was arrested from Mumbai on August 6 and confessed to selling personal user IDs on telegram. On the basis of his confession, Valsad resident Virendra Gupta was also arrested. Gupta too admitted to selling fake personal user IDs on telegram.
On the basis of leads provided by Aman Kumar Sharma, another accused Abhishekh Tiwari was apprehended August 12 from Sultanpur (Uttar Pradesh). Tiwari confessed to creating fake IRCTC personal user IDs and selling them on Telegram through Sharma.
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