CBI Official Sold Software To Agents That Let Them Book 800-1000 Tatkal Tickets At One Go; Arrested

Tatkal tickets from the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd’s (IRCTC) website is almost never available and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has finally found an answer as to why that happens. On Wednesday, CBI arrested one of its own official and his accomplice for tampering and altering with the IRCTC tatkal reservation system.

Assistant Programmer of CBI Ajay Garg and Anil Kumar Gupta have been arrested after the former developed a software which enabled travel agents to book 800-1000 confirmed tatkal tickets. Anil Kumar Gupta was responsible for the distribution of the software to travel agents. Besides 10 agents, seven in Jaunpur and three in Mumbai have been identified.

Garg had worked with IRCTC from 2007 to 2011 and knew the loopholes of the system. Gupta charged a hefty fee from agents who bought the software. Garg has been running the racket for the last one year.

How did the software function?

Passengers would not be able to get the tickets and would automatically approach an agent. The agent would then approach Garg for the tickets. Garg would then provide the confirmed ticket. The agents would charge anything between Rs 50 to 5,000 for booking the tickets.

Money recovered

India Today reported that according to the CBI, “Raids in 14 places including Delhi, Mumbai and Jaunpur have led to the recovery of almost Rs 89.42 lakh in cash, gold jewellery estimated at Rs 61.29 lakh including two gold bars weighing 1kg each, 15 laptops among other equipment.”

Not just cash, they also gathered a of bitcoins and hawala accounts. The accused have been taken into custody until January 5.

On the arrests made, CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said, “The case is in line with CBI directors’ policy of having a robust internal mechanism of ensuring probity and having zero tolerance towards corruption.”