Railway police arrests touts booking tickets illegally

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has arrested 14 touts including 8 IRCTC authorised agents and seized Rs 6.36 lakh worth e-tickets of Special Rajdhani Express booked illegally.

On specific information, the RPF conducted drive in many parts of the country mostly eastern parts, on May 20 and arrested these touts, the railways said in a statement.

"The IRCTC agents were using personal Ids to corner tickets and then sell them unauthorisedly at a premium. Action has been initiated to get them blacklisted. One tout was found using auto fill software called Super Tatkal Pro," the statement said.

Most of the seized ticket belong to different dates yet to commence journey of Special Rajdhani Expressed introduced on May 12. Since railway introduced 15 pairs of trains on select routes, there was huge demand for tickets.

The national transporter received compalints that touts booking e-tickets using multiple personal Ids and cornering reserved berths in the Rajdhani Special trains.

To prevent any illegality in ticket booking, earlier the railway banned agents booking in these trains. However some of the authorised agents were booking tickets using illegal software. The railways allowed only online tickrt booking of Special Rajdhani and banned counter ticketing booking except some caregories of pass holders.