Black marketing of IRCTC tickets: 387 touts nabbed, tickets worth Rs 32 lakh seized

In an effort to curb black marketing and misuse of railway tickets, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Friday arrested 387 touts and recovered online tickets worth Rs 32 lakh here.

"The arrests were made under 'Operation Thunder', a special drive that was conducted throughout Indian Railways with the help of the commercial and vigilance department, spanning over 276 places in 141 cities across the country," Director General of RPF Arun Kumar told ANI.

Kumar further said, "The police have conducted simultaneous raids across the cities to unearth the touts and we got to know that they have been running an illegal business worth Rs 3 crore where they book tickets using various user IDs and sell those tickets in black during peak summer."

A special police force is currently blacklisting those user IDs and cancelling the tickets that were booked using them. All the softwares used to carry out such operations are being investigated, he added.

Over 385 FIRs have been registered in this regard, the police said.

Further investigation is underway.