MUMBAI: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has asked the Centre for Information Railway System (CRIS) to block websites that provide assurance for tatkal tickets.
The RPF has also asked Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to provide details of the tickets which were seized from a few touts on May 2 so that other touts, who would have downloaded the software ‘Counter V2’ to book the tickets, can be tracked and arrested.
CRIS and IRCTC have identified close to 25 websites which will be suspended.
In addition to this, an RPF team is likely to be sent to eastern Uttar Pradesh to look out for three touts who are helping kingpin, Salman Khan (34) to sell the software in UP and other states.
A RPF official said that Salman had hired four people as agents for selling the software. Of these four, three touts are working in the eastern part of UP. He has earned more than Rs 32 lakh in the last three months by selling his software. If the racket is not busted, he would have managed to earn Rs 35 lakh more. He charges Rs 700 per month from each buyer to use his booking software. He said, “We are looking for people who are helping to Salman to sell his counter V2 software. A team will be sent to eastern part of UP to look out for three person in next week.”
Meanwhile, the railway authorities seized 6,603 PNR tickets amounting to Rs 1,47,14,850 crore in the first week of this month. According to the Central Railway (CR), another 1,300 PNR tickets worth Rs 33 lakh have been recovered from Salman. Tickets worth a total of Rs 1.80 crore have been seized.
A top RPF official said, “We have asked IRCTC and CRIS to make changes so that unauthorised software will be unable to book the tickets easily from the system.” A suggestion has been made to the IRCTC to make the changes in the script writing (filling the form for the tickets) with specific character everyday so that touts will not be able to get tickets.
Sachin Bhalode, senior divisional security commissioner of CR told this paper on Friday, “All those who are involved will be apprehended.”
