IITians & software pros touting 'Tatkal' rail tickets, targetting helpless labourers
New Delhi: Highly-skilled software developers and IIT graduates have now turned to developing illegal software to purchase "Tatkal" tickets in bulk and selling it to railway station agents. The touts have also now started taking undue advantage of the daily-wage workers and construction labourers to dupe them into buying highly-priced illegal tickets.
And while there have been 51 cases of touting reported in Delhi since train services reopened after the COVID-19 hiatus; law enforcement authorities have also stepped up their crackdown, with over 60 touts arrested in four months.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) data for this year revealed that from January to March, about 115 cases were registered and 115 touts were nabbed. In March, the lockdown was announced and after the resumption of train services, 51 touting cases were registered between July to October, in which 69 touts were arrested by the Delhi division of the RPF.
Officials said touts are now targetting illiterate and helpless labourers since the lockdown on train travel was lifted. They added that these touts first target desperate travellers outside the railway stations and then take them to a stall operating under the facade of a tour and travel company.
However, what is making RPF's job increasingly challenging is the high number of skilled engineers, information technology professionals and software developers, who are engaging in illegal activities.
This year, two software developers, who designed unauthorised software for purchasing "Tatkal" tickets, were arrested from Ghaziabad.
"The software was sold to 15,000 railway ticket agents all over India and the accused were getting Rs 20 per agent per day as a part-time business," the official said. For a general user, it took one to two minutes to fill out the details on the official website but the software users can do multiple entries with an auto-fill feature in a fraction of seconds.
In another case, RPF Officials in Southern Railway arrested a highly qualified engineer who graduated from an IIT, for developing an unauthorised train reservation application. "Super Tatkal" and "Super Tatkal Pro" apps were designed to book "Tatkal" tickets in a manner that gave users an unfair advantage over the official IRCTC app and website.
The targets are then sold tickets meant for genuine passengers at exorbitant prices. "During the investigation, we have found that these touts are sometimes connected with government outsourced employees, who provide them with the tickets," the official said.
Investigators said that many of the touts often harass the labourers, misbehave with them and abuse them.
"In one of the cases, we noticed that a middle-aged man was given a ticket meant for a senior citizen. They had changed the age in the ticket," the official said. According to the official, they have found a connection between porters and touts as well.
RPF data showed that 144 such cases were registered last year and 150 people were arrested. "This year, we
focussed on breaking the chain of touting. Through technical surveillance and by examining money trails, we have arrested several people," said Harish Papola, Security Commissioner, RPF.
