TN police arrest man for creating fake software to book tatkal tickets

CHENNAI: A man from Uttar Pradesh has been arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Tamil Nadu on Saturday on charges cheating the Indian Railways by creating a fake software to book tatkal train tickets.

The arrested person has been identified as Shamsher Alam (40), who has been accused of creating a fake software to book and sell tatkal tickets on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website since 2012.

Alam was arrested from Tiruvannamalai, where he was produced before a magistrate court which sent him to judicial custody.

RPF officials said that Alam was operating from Titwala town near Mumbai for the past 10 years and had developed a software, 'Fusion', to book tatkal tickets on the IRCTC website.

According to the local police, Alam sold the 'Fusion' software to private ticket-booking centres across the country which made money to the tune of Rs 50 crore by booking tatkal tickets illegally.

According to the police, five booking agents were arrested in Vellore after a raid in July 2022. The agents informed the police about a fake website that helped them book tatkal tickets faster by using fake IDs and by bypassing the genuine commuters.

These agenst spilled the beans, which led to the arrest of a person named Shailesh Yadav (32), a native of Danapur in Bihar, in September 2022.

Yadav had sold the software through his website (tatkalsoftwareall.in) to ticket booking agents across the country. On questioning Yadav, the police found that Alam was the key conspirator who had developed the software.

Alam initially rented out his software (named Sharp, Tez, Nexus ++ and Fusion) for Rs 500 to customers on a monthly basis. He then joined hands with Yadav and planned and executed the fraud in a major way.

The police said that Alam has cases registered against him in Kurla, Dadar, and Jodhpur police stations.