Surprise raids against rly touts, 5 held in western Tamil nadu

According to an official release issued on Friday, the Salem division of Southern Railways launched ‘Operation Thunder’ to curb instances of e-ticket touting.

Eight special RPF teams conducted raids against 30 ticketing agents on Thursday. Subsequently, five persons were caught under section 143 of the Railway Act for selling tickets illegally. Three of the arrested men were from Coimbatore, while the other two were caught in Erode and Salem districts.

Touts take advantage of the high demand during summer holidays to sell tickets illegally. This is an offence under section 143 of Railway Act 1989.

“A list of authorised agents can be found in the railway time table as well as online. All others who charge money to book tickets are touts. All tickets booked through fraudulent numbers are cancelled during such raids. As touts use alternate mobile numbers, passengers don’t receive cancellation messages,” the release stated.

The touts use bogus IRCTC personal’s IDs to book tickets, which are then sold to passengers at a premium. “Awareness campaigns are beingconducted regularly,urging people not to book tickets through agents, who were not registered with the railways or IRCTC,” it added.