RPF arrests youth involved in hacking IRCTC website

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Thursday arrested a youth who was involved in a racket of booking railway tickets by hacking the IRCTC website. According to the police, RPF officers on Thursday raided a medicine shop selling Ayurvedic medicines and arrested Suneet Kundu and seized his laptop, dongle, cash and other documents of Indian Railways.

Recently, police in Delhi had raided a shop Deepak Communications and arrested its owner. After interrogating him, they came to know about a racket operating in the country involving booking of railway tickets by hacking the IRCTC website. The police had received a complaint some months ago about the racket, but no breakthrough had been made. A team comprising RPF officers came to the city and raided the shop on getting information from the owner of Deepak Communications. 

Thursday’s arrest threw new light into the investigation. The racket involved opening fake travel agencies, where railway bookings could be made. Apart from railway reservation counters, there are registered agencies through which tickets can be booked. The fake agencies hacked the IRCTC site and booked tickets for buyers, causing heavy loss to railway revenue. The fake shops were run in such a way that people could never question their credibility. Original tickets with proper reservation were given to them.

RPF officers said by interrogating Kundu, they would be able to unearth the racket that had been operating for quite some time.