E-ticket racketeers using social media to lure victims, says RPF

New Delhi: Using social media to reach out to maximum people for booking train tickets is the latest modus operandi of gangs involved in e-ticketing rackets.

These gangs book mass tickets not for private use, but for their illegal business, revealed the investigation by Railway Protection Force (RPF), which have launched 'Mission Tatkal' for curbing the menace.

Personnel from all RPF police stations in Delhi have been raiding different places in the Capital to stop the illegal business of booking tickets.

Led by RPF Director General Arun Kumar, the teams have busted several rackets; in one such case, a man was arrested and 119 live railway e-tickets worth Rs four lakh seized prepared without authorisation were seized.

Over 547 fake user IDs were found to be related with the accused Naveen Prajapati's mobile number. It was further claimed that till now, 7,549 e-tickets worth Rs 1.5 crore had been issued from these IDs since June 2014.

Prajapati was running the business under the name 'Aadhaar Kendra', whereas in many other cases the gangs use names of travelling agencies to operate their racket.

Talking to Millennium Post, Senior Divisional Security Commissioner Shashi Kumar claimed they have found that these gangs use several social media applications like Facebook, as well as e-mails to promote their illegal business.

"On social media, they share their details about claiming to provide railway tickets," said Kumar.

Investigators probing cases of e-ticketing rackets claimed that earlier such gangs used to roam around railway stations, but now they are using technology.

RPF officials further said the accused creating several fake user IDs online for this business. Sources in RPF claimed that many accused also target foreign nationals for e-tickets and are highly active during festival season to earn maximum profits.

"Intensive search is going on in Delhi-NCR to curb the menace," said Kumar.