Railway e-ticket racket busted, agent held

E-tickets worth Rs 1.86 lakh, mostly second class sleeper and AC tickets connecting Chennai to various towns in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of north India, were seized. 

Thangavel, proprietor of Sudarshan travels on Montieth Road, was arrested for allegedly booking tatkal e-tickets using multiple independent IRCTC accounts and selling them at exorbitant rates. RPF sources, who claimed that the agency had sold the tickets at Rs 200-300 more than the actual price, put the net worth of similar seizures made during the last year at Rs 15 lakh. Involvement of over 60 travel agencies have been detected during the said period.

Police claimed that the agencies were using independent user IDs as the IRCTC server blocks licensed agents from booking tatkal tickets during the first half hour. Registered independent IRCTC users can make a maximum of six bookings per month. “Agencies have started exploiting e-tickets after realising that counter tickets involve higher risk and no longer fetch good money. Unlike in counter tickets, which require impersonation, the tatkal e-tickets will be in the name of original traveller and other details would be genuine too. The agencies only need to create multiple individual IDs,” a RPF source explained. 

“We step up the vigil during festival season when the demand would be high. Today’s (Rs 1.86 lakh) was the biggest haul. We have booked 70 cases so far this year,” said Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, Chennai division, KK Ashraff said.