Lok Sabha Question No. 184 (STARRED), answered on 2020-03-04
Subject: Touting Activities
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Bidyut Baran Mahato, Shrirang Appa Barne

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 184

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.03.2020

## TOUTING ACTIVITIES

- *184.        SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO: SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has recently busted a big gang involved in ticketing  scams,  money laundering  and  suspected terror funding;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  modus  operandi  adopted  by  the culprits;
- (c) whether any arrest has been made in this regard till date and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether  the  Railways  has  launched  'operation  thunder'  against touting activities and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the steps taken/being taken by the Railways to make its reservation sites foolproof and hacking free?

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

## ANSWER (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House. *****

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION  NO. 184  BY  SHRI  BIDYUT  BARAN  MAHATO  AND  SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 04.03.2020 REGARDING TOUTING ACTIVITIES

(a) to  (c):  Railway  Protection  Force  (RPF)  arrested  one  accused  person named Ghulam Mustafa suspected of selling illegal Railway ticket booking software ANMS on 08.01.2020 in course of enquiry into criminal case vide Crime No.758/2019 dated 30.10.2019 under section 143 of 'The Railways Act' registered at RPF post, Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru City. He was found to have used certain illegal softwares, advanced hacking applications, crypto currency accounts for carrying out this operation and further, during the course of enquiry, a list of 3000 bank branches were recovered from his laptop.  On  the  basis  of  lead  given  by  the  arrested  accused  regarding operation  of  illegal  software  for  e-Ticketing,  several  cases  have  been registered in RPF Posts across the Indian Railways, wherein a total of 82 accused  persons  have  been  arrested  till 25.02.2020  and  are  under investigation.  Further, in this matter, the following cases have also been registered by State Police/Delhi Police which are under investigation: -

- (i) Karnataka  Police  (Rajgopal  Nagar  Police  Station)  has  registered Crime No. 16/2020 dated 15.01.2020, under sections 419, 420, 34 IPC and  43,  65,  66,  66(c),  66(d),  70  of  The  'IT  Act',  which  is  under investigation.
- (ii) UP  Police  has  registered  Crime  No.  330/19  dated  02.12.2019  under sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 IPC & 43, 65, 66, 66C, 66D, 70 IT Act at Purani Basti Police Station.
- (iii) UP  Police  has  registered  Crime  No.  269/19  dated  08.12.2019  under sections 34, 419, 420 IPC & 43, 65, 66, 66C, 66D, 70 IT Act at Haraiya Police Station, Basti.
- (iv) Delhi  Police  has  registered  Crime  No.  0045/2020  dated  20.02.2020 under sections 420/120B/34 of IPC and 66 of IT Act at PS Special Cell (SB), Delhi Police.

The illegal software during its operation auto-fills the passenger details in form, auto reads the login,  submits  Captchas,  bypasses  bank  OTP protection  and  pushes  multiple  numbers  of  fictitious  IRCTC  user  IDs simultaneously, due to which it facilitates huge number of fictitious IRCTC user  IDs  to  jump  the  queue  when  window  of  Tatkal/other  booking  starts and corner simultaneously several confirmed berths in trains.  Due to pan India action by RPF, all these illegal softwares have been suspended and are  not  being  used.  In  addition  to  cessation  of  functioning  of  the  illegal softwares,  various  wings  of  railways  like  RPF,  IRCTC  and  CRIS  have worked  together  to  upgrade  the  existing  security  features  of  the  PRS system.  This  has  also  disrupted  the  functioning  of  any  other  softwares. Situation  is  kept  under  close  watch  so  that  any  upgradation  of  illegal softwares, still in operation, if any, is responded to in real time and even such softwares are not able to indulge in such malpractices.

- (d) :    Yes,  Sir.  RPF  conducted  a  Pan  India  Drive  titled  as  'Operation Thunder' across All Indian Railways on 13.06.2019 against illegal touting activities for Railway tickets. The drive was conducted in 462 cities across India with registration of 563 cases and 605 arrests. During this drive, 3554 fake  personal  User  IDs  of  IRCTC  being  used  to  book  tickets  were deactivated.
- (e) :  The  following  steps  have  been  taken,  inter-alia  to  make  IRCTC reservation website, foolproof:
1. Checks have been introduced to ensure that form filling by automatic software is comparable to those filled by human beings.
- Restrictions have been put on creation of IRCTC user ID and booking
2. of tickets per user.
3. Dynamic  CAPTCHA  has  been  introduced  at  registration,  login  and booking page.
4. Multilayer  security  &  regular  audits  by  Standardization  Testing  and Quality Certification (STQC).
5. Restriction on authorized agents of IRCTC for booking tickets during first  fifteen  minutes  of  opening  of  Advance  Reservation  Period (ARP) booking and Tatkal booking.

*****