The Railway Protection Force (RPF), Visakhapatnam personnel on Friday arrested an employee of Gangavaram Port on charge of hacking into the IRCTC e-ticket portal and generating tatkal railway tickets illegally for easy money.
According to RPF officials, the accused was allegedly using illegal software—Makkhichoose and Super Tatkal— to hack the website to generate tickets at a faster pace than the normal.
Acting on a tip-off, RPF teams raided an office in Satyanagar area and nabbed K. Srinivasa Rao. As many as 614 railway tickets valued at ₹9.99 lakh were recovered from his possession. The officials also seized computers, accessories and cellphones.
Illegal software
“The accused allegedly booked multiple tickets by using several fake Ids simultaneously. These software have features such as auto fill of passengers’ details, train details, bank details, travel plans, auto login, captcha and OTP bypass, which can be used to book tickets prior to the opening time of the tatkal e-ticket portal,” said Jitendra Srivastava, Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, RPF.
Till date, the Waltair railway Division have detected three illegal software that were used to book tickets illegally, he added.
Commission
According to officials, the port employees are major customers of the accused. “Srinivasa Rao would collect ₹50 per passenger for booking a general ticket and ₹200 per AC ticket,” said RPF Inspector (Visakhapatnam) P. Srinivasa Rao.
A case has been registered at the RPF, Marripalem and the accused has been produced before the VI Metropolitan Magistrate Court for Railways and was remanded.
Raids continue
The RPF has been conducting similar raids in M.V.P Colony, NAD Junction in the city, Narasannapeta in Srikakulam, Bobbili in Vizianagaram, Rayagada, Gunpur in Ordisha.
About 347 tickets worth ₹5.37 lakh have been seized and many persons have been arrested, the officials said.
