New Delhi: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has arrested 387 touts from 205 cities across the country as part of “Operation Thunder”. The operation was launched in an attempt to weed out corruption in the railway ticketing network.
According to the RPF, the operation was carried out all over the country on Thursday, in which it recovered over 22,000 tickets worth around Rs 36 lakh. As many as 375 cases have been registered in this regard.
The operation was carried out after the RPF’s cyber cell found that ticket sales touched new highs during the summer vacations as touts across the country tampered with the IRCTC website. An all-India drive was launched with the help of the technical and IT cell, identifying all suspected agents by DG RPF Arun Kumar. A detailed work plan was prepared after collecting indulgence about the activities of these agents.
An RPF official said: “It was decided to conduct raids all over the country on the same day and same time. Field officers were asked to verify the information before raids. Subsequently, ‘Operation Thunder’ was launched on 13 June at 338 places in 205 cities by various RPF teams.”
After the raids, as many as 22,253 tickets valued at more than Rs 36 lakh on which journey was supposed to be undertaken were seized. In a preliminary enquiry, it was found that these touts had done illegal sale of tickets valued at more than Rs 3.7 crore. Following the raids, all suspected User Ids have been blacklisted and the tickets were deactivated. Illegal software ANMS and Red Mirchi have been seized from Kota, Rajasthan.
Investigations revealed that the touts, in a bid to earn money, used illegal software to book tickets in Tatkal category by tampering with the IRCTC website. They were selling tickets at higher rates. This made it difficult for the genuine passengers to book Tatkal tickets. This is to be noted that June witnessed a heavy rush of passengers due to summer vacations and the marriage season.
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