With summer vacations, festivals, and wedding travel increasing the demand for train tickets, the Railway Protection Force (RPF), South East Central Railway (SECR), Nagpur Division, arrested seven ticket touts in a four-day operation from March 6 to 9.
The crackdown, conducted under ‘Operation Uplabdh’, targeted the rampant illegal trading and black-marketing of Tatkal and premium Tatkal e-tickets.
The operation, led by Divisional Security Commissioner Deep Chandra Arya and supervised by Inspector General Munawwar Khurshid, involved intensive checking across multiple locations in Nagpur division and adjoining districts of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Authorities seized mobiles, laptops, and computers, uncovering the misuse of IRCTC user IDs to book e-tickets for immediate resale. Arrests included:
March 6: Santosh Kakudiya (Bhooma tehsil) – 10 e-tickets worth RS10,686; Rahul Vishwakarma (Nainpur) – 9 e-tickets worth Rs4,630.
March 7: Mohd Shamim (Maharajpur) – 7 e-tickets over Rs10,000; Rohan Mehar (near Navegaon) – 14 e-tickets worth Rs42,088 and a mobile phone; one individual near Rajnandgaon – 17 e-tickets worth Rs17,000.
March 8: Tanmay Jain (Balaghat) – 33 e-tickets worth Rs47,243 and a laptop, confessed to illegal ticket bookings with extra charges.
March 9: Ajay Kawde (Gondia) – 15 Tatkal/premium Tatkal e-tickets worth Rs75,299 and a mobile phone.
All seven accused were booked under Section 143 of the Railways Act, 1989. The recovered tickets and devices are now with authorities. The operation exposed an organized racket worth several lakhs.
The RPF urged passengers to report any suspected ticket touting to the nearest RPF post or via the national railway helpline 139, assuring total confidentiality.
Operation Uplabdh highlights the RPF’s commitment to ensuring fair railway bookings during peak travel seasons.
