RPF busts multi-crore ticket booking racket

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) busted a multi-crore ticket booking racket and arrested two agents who had hacked the railway website and used the ANMS Tatkal software to book e-tickets.

The racket is spread across the country and efforts are on to nab all the accused.

The arrested are Gulam Mustafa (26), a native of Jharkhand, and Hanumantharaju M (37), a resident of Peenya.

Akhilesh Kumar Tiwari, post commander of RPF, South Western Railway, said Hanumantharaju was arrested last year and Mustafa on January 8.

Upon questioning, Mustafa said that in 2017, he had created an Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) agent ID to book an e-ticket. He later joined hands with the other accused and hacked the booking portal through ANMS software and created 563 fake IDs and started booking e-tickets illegally.

He even rented out the hacked ANMS software, which led to the department incurring losses up to crores of rupees. He also had in his possession a Pakistan-based DARKNET software and Linux software to hack central government websites, bank accounts etc. He had gained access to government websites and banned websites.

Hanumantharaju worked for Mustafa and used to sell the tickets illegally.

Since the RPF has no jurisdiction to book the accused under IT Act, they filed a complaint with the city police who booked the men under IPC Section 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating).

The Rajagopala Nagar police said the accused were still in RPF custody and that they will take them into custody for further investigation.

The IRCTC mobile app can be downloaded by anyone and five tickets can be booked monthly for personal use.

Mustafa had created hundreds of IRCTC IDs to book tickets and sell them. An officer said it takes two minutes to book one ticket and if the counter is open at 11 am, within 10 to 15 seconds, the accused used to book nearly 150 to 200 tickets.