Railway Protection Force seeks jail for illegal e-ticket vending, and not just fines

MUMBAI: With more and more passengers preferring to book railway tickets online, e-ticketing frauds too have seen a phenomenal surge year-on-year. Even as conviction rates are rising, courts prefer to impose a fine in e-ticket fraud cases instead of sentencing the offenders to prison, which the Railway Protection Force (RPF) believes isn’t much of a deterrent. Of the 107 e-ticketing fraud accused convicted between April 2015-March 2016, only one was sent behind bars.The Western Railway RPF is now pushing public prosecutors to convince courts that jail term is necessary especially when the “big fish” are netted.
“In 2014-15, we had recorded only 47 cases of illegal e-ticket vending as we were yet to know all the modus operandi of offenders. In 2015-16, this figure rose by 385%,” said an RPF official.
With the spurt in offences recorded, Western Railway’s RPF wanted to ensure there was no pendency in trials. “We pushed public prosecutors to try cases in bulk. In April, for the first time, 20 e-ticketing touts were convicted at one go. Not just speedy convictions, we also want the accused to stay behind bars for some time,” the official added.
The Railway Act provides for up to three years in jail or fine extending to Rs 10,000, or both, for illegal ticket vending.
“We seize e-tickets as well as the gadgets used for railway ticket booking, such as laptops and cellphones. Illegal e-ticketing vendors are getting innovative. A few months ago, we found a sweets shop owner and his assistant illegally booked e-tickets sent to their shop via email or pen drive,”said another officer. “At least in deserving cases, we will request courts, through public prosecutors, to hand out jail terms to deter others.”
The RPF also found that a few of the operators who were authorized by the railways to book e-tickets were in fact involved in illegal vending. “Registered operators understand the system well. We tracked their addresses and those of their sub-agents, plotting them on our map. Decoy teams of five personnel were formed in every RPF outpost in Mumbai. The teams visit different registered operators every day under cover to book a railway ticket. If the operator uses illegal methods to book railway tickets, he is picked up,” said senior divisional security commissioner, RPF (WR), Anand Vijay Jha.