The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has arrested eight persons who were allegedly part of a a racket in which confirmed tickets were booked under the tatkal scheme by touts working for travel agencies.
Senior Divisional Security Commissioner of the RPF S. Louis Amuthan told The Hindu that the racket came to light when officials noticed tickets under tatkal being booked from the Passengers Reservation System (PRS) counters on the city’s outskirts, especially during the wee hours.
Special teams were formed and raids conducted at the Anekal PRS. The teams caught five touts — Thimmarayappa (30), Syed Sajjid (20), Syed Naveed (20), Sendilkumar (31) and Sajjad (18) — red-handed and recovered six tatkal tickets worth Rs. 10,955 and Rs. 12,000 in cash from them.
Mr. Amuthan said the accused used to work for travel agencies and were paid Rs. 100 to stand in queues and buy tickets. Based on this information, the officials raided Travel Hub, located in Hebbagodi; and Sri Sai Travel House, in Jigani. A total of 37 railway reservation and tatkal tickets worth Rs. 56,305, Rs. 25,500 cash and 537 cancelled tickets were seized. They arrested Arun (27) and Prabhu (30), owners of the travel agencies.
Meanwhile, another team raided Manjunath Travels in Begur and seized five tickets worth Rs. 9,380 and arrested Shivaraj (37), the owner.
A case has been registered against all eight persons under Section 143 of the Railways Act.
