CBI official held for illicit software that 'duped' Tatkal rail ticket booking system

The CBI has arrested an assistant programmer working with the probe agency and another person for developing and selling a software for booking railway tickets by "duping the Tatkal ticket booking system", an official said on Wednesday.

Ajay Garg, 35, was held from Delhi on Tuesday night when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) got information about its employee indulging in the racket with the help of Anil Kumar Gupta. Garg was on Wednesday presented before a special court in Saket, which sent him to five-day CBI custody.

Gupta was held from his residence in Jaunpur late on Tuesday night and is to be brought to Delhi on transit remand, CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said.

During the night-long operation, the CBI conducted raids at 14 locations in Delhi, Mumbai and Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh which led to the recovery of Rs 89.42 lakh cash, gold jewellery worth Rs 61.29 lakh, including two gold bars of one kg each, 15 laptops, 15 hard disks, 52 mobile phones, 24 sim cards, 10 notebooks, six routers, four dongles and 19 pen drives along with some incriminating material from the premises of the accused and others.

"It was alleged that Garg had developed one illicit software for duping the Tatkal ticket booking system being run by the IRCTC and conspired with a private person Anil Kumar Gupta. They indulged in distributing the software to private persons for their unauthorised use for a hefty consideration," the CBI official said.

The official said that "use of such software is illegal as per rules and regulations of IRCTC and also under the Railways Act."

"It was also alleged that Garg was collecting money for the use of such software by certain booking agents and had amassed huge wealth from these activities. The case is in the line with CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma's policy of having an robust internal mechanism of ensuring probity and having zero tolerance towards corruption," Dayal said.

The official, however, clarified that there was no loss to the IRCTC in the racket, but it was in another way a loss to the public who could not get tickets while trying to book it online.

The official said that as many as 10 agents, seven from Jaunpur and three from Mumbai, have also been identified.

--IANS

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