Rlys mull digital system against e-ticketing frauds

Nashik: Railway authorities in the Bhusawal division are planning a digital surveillance system after an authorised person in Jalgaon was recently caught booking tatkal tickets online using a software that permitted booking by skipping the payment mode.
"The task to nail the Jalgaon-based youth, caught by the Railway Police Force (RPF) while booking multiple tickets through his laptop by skipping the payment procedure, is a difficult one because this is for the first time we have registered such a case.We have sought help from the forensic laboratory in Hyderabad to get the authentic timing of the processes involved in the ticket booking process," divisional security commissioner (Bhusawal division) C M Mishra said.
"This would give us an edge to prove that booking and confirmation of the tickets was actually followed by the payment for the tickets, instead of the other way round," he added.
Acting on a tip-off, railways officials had approached the youth to get tickets booked for themselves on several occasions and closely observed the ways he would adopt to get confirmed tickets for most passengers — with higher success rate than others. The officials had picked up leads about he being an expert in the system and that is how they proceeded in the investigations.
"Opening multiple channels or windows for booking tickets and multiple logins were some of the tricks being used in the past. But what foxed us was the skipping of the procedures," Mishra said.
The officer said the department was certain about some insiders helping the youth, from whom goods worth Rs 70,000 (including cash and tickets) were seized. "We are trying to identify the person who might have helped the accused," the officer said.
The department is also planning to have a surveillance system to keep tabs on back-end operations. "The Indian Railways Transport Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited has been informed about the manner in which the software was misused. We hope that the experts will plug the system. We are also planning to develop a surveillance system of our own to ensure such incidents are not repeated," Mishra said.
The accused in Jalgaon was caught booking tatkal tickets online using a software that permitted booking by skipping the payment mode. This saved the accused a good 35 seconds, enough time to decide whether one gets a tatkal ticket or not. The security commissioner's office was keeping an eye on the accused for quite some time because of the record number of confirm bookings provided by him.