As part of ‘Operation Thunder’, launched at South East Central Railway (SECR) under the guidance of Chief Security Commissioner (CSC) Amiya Nandan Sinha, Railway Protection Force (RPF) of all the three divisions including Bilaspur, Raipur and Nagpur and seized illegal tickets valuing up to Rs 6.50 lakhs. RPF also registered 30 cases against 32 ticketing touts for illegal touting through private user ID which is a punishable offence under section 143 of Railway Act. The raids were carried out throughout all the three divisions to stop illegal ticket sale incurring huge loss to the national transporter. According to information RPF launched the drive throughout the SECR zone along with IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) Anti-Fraud Team. Different Task Teams were formed throughout the zone.

 

Elaborating about this Divisional Security Commissioner (DSC) Rishi Shukla informed that the detailed investigation of the cases is going on. Shukla had formed task teams in every RPF Post across the division to carry out raids and the continuous support was being provided by the Anti-Fraud Team of IRCTC which had also shared the intelligence regarding the location and modus operandi of the touts.

 

The massive drive launched by RPF was an effort towards the larger aim of ensuring that the common passengers are able to book ticket for themselves and the middlemen are eliminated some of which have upper hand during booking of tatkal tickets by use of illegal software. RPF will now move towards cancelling the licenses of authorized agents who are booking tickets through personal user ID for commercial purposes. During interrogation all the accused involved in the offence have confessed their crime. RPF have registered an offence against them and started further investigations. Earlier it may be noted that the RPF had launched the drive across the nation to crack whip on the touts involved in fake ticketing and incurring huge loss to the Railways. Besides Railway Board authorities, the officials of Zonal and Divisional levels are also included in the teams.