In a special drive to eradicate the menace of touting (re-selling of illegally booked railway tickets), the Western railway along with the RPF seized tickets worth more than ₹32 crore and arrested 747 accused persons in the year 2022, which was 63% higher than 2021.
Following the directions issued by Railway Board, special teams of staff from the Detective Wing/RPF Crime branch, and Cyber Cell divisions were formed to conduct special drives against the touts.
According to the railway authorities, the accused persons in such cases book tickets by using several fake IDs, including some authorized IRCTC agents who use fake IDs and also use illegal software, charging extra money from innocent passengers.
'Operation Uplabdh' against illegal touting
RPF has been undertaking intensive and sustained action in a mission mode under the code name 'Operation Uplabdh' against persons involved in touting. While working on the drive 'Uplabdh' in the year 2022, a total of 747 accused were apprehended for illegal touting with seizer of tickets valued at ₹32,64,57,602, they also detected 26 illegal software in 34 cases of E-tickets. This crackdown was a 63.85% increase in cases in comparison to the year 2021.
This year in 2023, on the basis of digital input supplemented by Human Intelligence, in the month of January the RPF team succeeded in nabbing 47 cases of illegal touting of Railway E-ticketing with a seizer of 183 tickets valued at ₹5,93,738.
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