Indian Railways busts major Tatkal booking racket using IRCTC ‘counter software’

By Rajeev Ranjan

The Indian Railways has busted a massive racket concerning booking of Tatkal train tickets through IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) website. The Central Railway has nabbed one Salman who masterminded the racket and had a network of 5400 touts for the purpose.

The arrest of Salman, who is currently in the custody of the Railway Protection Force, is expected to expose several such rackets being run for booking of train tickets. The revelations made by him during the questioning has left the authorities in shock and disbelief.

According to sources, Salman has revealed that he used a software worth just Rs 700. The software apparently managed to cheat the IRCTC server and book tickets in a jiffy.

How the software functioned:

Before the opening of tatkal ticket booking on IRCTC.co.in, all details of the passengers were entered in the counter software. As soon as the booking began at 10 am, the data used to be transferred automatically from the counter software to IRCTC website with train, journey date and other required details.

This way, tickets were booked even before those standing in queues at various counters across the country could get their bookings done. According to officials, the software, reportedly designed by Salman himself, functions just like IRCTC website, but takes all details beforehand.

Salman used to provide the software to those who gave him money through tatkal booking to him. Within one month, the software was downloaded in as many as 2500 computers. He used to charge Rs 700 for each software download.

He had reportedly been using the software to run the tatkal ticket booking racket for the past few months.