Accused include IRCTC agents, who were using their personal IDs to corner tickets and selling them illegally at a premium cost
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In a crackdown operation against touts and IRCTC agents that began on Thursday, the Indian Railways arrested six touts and eight IRCTC agents who had allegedly hacked into the ticket system and selling tickets for a premium price. Tickets worth Rs 6.36 lakhs were also recovered from the culprits.
The IRCTC agents were using personal Ids to corner tickets and then sell them unauthorisedly at a high cost. One tout was found using auto fill software called 'Super Tatkal Pro'. Action has been initiated to get them blacklisted, said railway officials.
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Indian Railways started 15 AC Special trains on May 12, 2020 and announced 100 pairs of additional trains with effect from June 1, 2020. Almost 1.50 lakh tickets were booked within two hours of opening the bookings and complaints started pouring in about hacking of e-tickets by touts using multiple personal IDs and cornering reserved berths in these special trains.
The Railways had contemplated that once the reservation for the 100 pairs of trains begin(May 21), the activities of touts will escalate adversely affecting the availability of confirmed train reservations to the common man.
Following this, Railway Police Force(RPF) started a concerted nation wide effort to identify and act against these touts. Analysis of PRS data through PRABAL module clubbed with ground intelligence is being used to identify and bring them to book.
The drive has been launched on May 20 and despite the impact of Cyclone Amphan in the eastern part of the country, the RPF has been able to arrest 14 touts including 8 IRCTC agents and recovered tickets worth Rs 6,36,727 which are advanced booking amount.
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