Consultant to aid Western Railway RPF in checking e-ticket fraud

Consultant to aid Western Railway RPF in checking e-ticket fraud

Mumbai: The Western Railways unit of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has hired a consultant who can give specific tip-offs on e-ticketing fraud.

“The aim of hiring a consultant is to monitor the activities of ticketing agents without arousing suspicion. The consultant coordinates with our teams and keeps looking for areas where the activity is high and helps us zero in on malpractices,” said a senior official of the security agency.

The latest arrest made by the RPF in this regard is of 38-year-old Vishnukant Mishra from a cyber cafe in Kandivali East. Mishra had a history of booking 14 e-tickets worth Rs 35283. Mishra used to charge Rs 50 as his commission for booking each e-ticket. A raid was conducted on Mishra’s house in the same neighbourhood and several visiting cards of a travel agency were found.

The RPF has also recently cracked the whip on authorised agents who breach regulations and create personal log-ins for booking e-tickets. Investigators have been writing to the IRCTC to cancel the registration of such agents and blacklist them.

“There are regulations in place for authorised agents to function. For instance, they can only start booking tickets online after a gap of two hours from the opening time accorded to the public. This means, where reservation starts at 8am for regular buyers, agents can only book 10am onwards. Similarly for tatkal tickets, agents can start booking only after 12 noon. Some agents, however, create personal log-ins and start booking at the same time as the public,” said the official. “Everytime an authorised agent is arrested, we mail the IRCTC to cancel his registration, penalise him more than is prescribed in the Railway Act (over Rs.20000) and blacklist him so that he loses business. We want to warn passengers against approaching such agents and are appealing that a warning be printed on tickets which could make conniving passengers liable for prosecution,” he added.