Bhubaneswar, July 21: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has decided to crack down on illegal ticket sellers using multiple personal IDs to book train tickets.
As many as 13 persons were arrested under East Coast Railway (ECoR) in 2015 while this year, the RPF so far has arrested 15 persons for using their personal IDs to book tickets and later selling them for high prices.
On July 16, the RPF personnel had zeroed in on a person from Jajpur district and seized 13 tickets procured by him through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website. Investigations revealed that the accused had created 14 fake IDs to book the tickets.
Prior to this incident, the RPF, with the help of Saheed Nagar police, had arrested a travel agent from Acharya Vihar last month and seized tickets worth Rs 40,000 from his possession. The accused was using 37 fake IDs to book tickets. RPF officials said the accused, who had been running his business for past two years, had earned crores before he was arrested.
The assistant security commissioner of the RPF, EcoR, Aditya Awasthi, said the misuse of personal IDs for commercial purposes has become rampant, as the e-ticketing system was very customer friendly.
"The tickets purchased through personal IDs are only meant for personal use and cannot be sold in the market. We have been trying to trace agents involved in such activities by sending our decoys. Besides, we are also keeping tabs on Internet protocol addressees of the suspected IDs," Awasthi said.
A railway official said registered agents of IRCTC were also involved in such unethical practices after the railways decided that agents could start purchasing Tatkal tickets 30 minutes after the log in time for personal users.
"Several registered IRCTC agents are also creating fake IDs and booking tickets. The agents sometime charge an additional Rs 300 for each passenger for tickets obtained through personal IDs," said a railway official. In order to restrict such practices, the Indian Railways decreased the maximum number of e-tickets for general users to six every month instead of 10.
