Mumbai: In last 25 days, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the Central Railway (CR) has arrested 35 touts in 34 cases for selling tickets of the outstation trains to passengers by charging additional Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. The RPF has seized 348 tickets worth Rs 9,81,961. The PNRs of these tickets have been suspended and waiting lists of the genuine passengers would be cleared, said an official.
An RPF official said that at the onset of the festival season a special drive is carried out to ensure that the common travellers get the tickets easily. RPF personnel and vigilance team have swung into the action to prevent black marketing of outstation train tickets.
He also said, “Dadar RPF have arrested Mahesh Hariji Chheda (30) on Tuesday night from Ranade Road in Dadar. Chheda had booked 91 e-tickets worth Rs 2,17,010 from multiple user IDs.”
Chheda has been booked under section 143 of The Railways Act, (1989) for unauthorised carrying on of the business of procuring and supplying of railway tickets. An accused is charged a fine of Rs 10,000 or imprisoned for three years as punishment for selling tickets without authorisation.
The Dadar RPF had deployed a man to decoy Chheda to book a ticket for him, once the man got a confirmed ticket from Chheda RPF arrested him. Most of the touts, who have been arrested by the RPF, are under the judicial custody. These touts used a booster and software named mace and red mirchi to book tickets without authorisation.
B.K. Pandey, additional charge of RPF senior divisional security commissioner of Mumbai division of CR, said, “The drive has been conducted since October 8 and 35 touts have been arrested. This is a result of coordinated efforts of IRCTC, vigilance teams and RPF.”
