An IIT Kharagpur postgraduate was arrested for developing an android app which bypassed the railway system and provided people with a platform for faster booking of confirmed tickets.

Reports suggest that the IIT student was tracked down by the cyber cell officials of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) using server source code, application source code, end-users list and his bank statements.

The youth has been identified as S Yuvarajaa who is a native of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. According to the sources of The Times of India, Yuvarajaa graduated from Anna University and had been creating apps since 2016. He found the IRCTC app to be very slow hence created an alternative app for it. The app came in two variants – ‘Super Tatkal’ and ‘Super Tatkal pro’ – which became popular and gathered one lakh users in a very short time. The apps have been taken down following the IITian’s arrest.

The app was available for free on the android app store and had a coin system. The cost of a coin pack consisting of 10 coins was available for ₹20. Every time a user booked a ticket five coins were deducted from the pack. The payment was done through Instamojo gateway and the money was credited to the student’s bank account.

The RPF has registered a case under section 143 (2) of the Railway Act. Southern Railway principal chief security commissioner Birendra Kumar said that Yuvarajaa created an app to book tickets for railways even though he wasn’t an authorised agent of the Indian Railways, and he was arrested for bypassing the system of IRCTC and illegally making money through the same.

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