244 touts held in 20 days, tickets worth Rs 1cr seized

Mumbai: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Western Railway (WR) has arrested 244 high profile touts in last 20 days and seized tickets worth Rs 1.06 crore across the WR.

On November 2, in a special drive against the touts only in Mumbai division, 91 tickets worth Rs 2,82,339 were seized. The RPF arrested 12 persons in connection with selling e-tickets illegally to passengers. All have been booked under section 143 of the Railways Act.

The WR has formed Special Task Force consisting of crime branch inspectors and dedicated staff from field units to curb the illegal selling of tickets.

They conducted a nationwide crackdown on November 2 and 3, in which reserved tickets worth Rs 16 lakh was recovered and 40 touts were arrested. Such tickets are sold on high commission to passengers during festive season.

Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer of WR said, “There is a huge demand for reserved tickets due to which activities of touts witnessed a sharp increase during the festive season. The RPF have conducted about 1,400 raids in the last 20 days with arrest of 244 high profile touts and recovery of reserved tickets worth Rs 1.06 crore.

Mr Bhakar said that the special drive against the touting activities would continue till November 30. Also, an awareness campaign has been launched simultaneously to sensitise passengers for buying tickets from approved sources only, either online or from PRS counters.