CBI busts railway ticket booking racket

NEW DELHI: CBI has busted a racket where travel agents could book as many as 36 tickets at one time on their computers with the help of an illegal software provided by a railway official.

After gathering preliminary information backed by cyber evidence, the CBI has registered a case against an Assistant Manager of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation ( IRCTC) and others.

The accused official, who has been booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code dealing with cheating and Information and Technology Act, gave a software to some travel agents which helped in mass booking of railway tickets, the CBI said.

The travel agents used to make bulk bookings of tickets and later sold the same at a huge premium, thereby causing harassment to genuine passengers.

The probe agency said the gang had "interfered" in the IRCTC booking system by installing a software programme in its computer systems through which the travel agents did mass booking of tickets. In normal course, any individual or an agent can book only one ticket with maximum of six passengers at a time.

Simultaneous searches were conducted yesterday by the CBI at premises of the travel agents located in various cities and the CBI's Bangalore office also raided the company which manufactured the illegal software - 'New Trained Software'.

CBI seized laptops and computers which have been sent for forensic examination.