New Delhi: Ever wondered why you would never get a confirmed ticket while booking tatkal tickets in high demand routes from IRCTC? Did you wonder at the coincidence that the travel operators always managed to get the confirmed berth?
A probe has now revealed how it wasn’t actually a coincidence or expertise but was a clear case of cybercrime.
Ajay Garg, an Assistant Programmer with CBI has been arrested by his own agency, for developing an illegal software based on IRCTC’s railway ticketing system.
According to the CBI, Ajay had earlier worked in Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) between 2007 and 2011. He knew the vulnerabilities of ticketing software of Indian Railways.
These vulnerabilities helped him to develop the fake software. Garg gamed the railways software in such a way that it allowed him to book hundreds of tickets in the morning during the Tatkal hours. He used 800 to 1000 customer IDs at one go.
The accused had developed the illicit software for duping the Tatkal ticket booking system being run by IRCTC. He had developed it with a distributor Anil Kumar Gupta and together they sold this ticketing software to tour and travel operators.
They used to collect money for the use of such software by certain booking agents and had amassed huge wealth from these activities. The CBI probe showed that to avoid the glare they used to allegedly receive money through Bitcoins and hawala network.
CBI has registered a case of criminal conspiracy, under sections of IT, for making illegal software of Railway Ticketing software. Three travel agents of Mumbai and seven agents of Jaunpur (UP) have been identified. Searches were conducted at 14 places, including Delhi, Mumbai and Jaunpur (UP), which have resulted in recoveries of cash of Rs 89.42 lakh (approx); gold jewellery valued at Rs 61.29 lakh (approx.) 2 gold Bars of 1 kg each; 15 laptops; 15 Hard Disks; 52 Mobile phones; 24 SIMs; 10 Notebooks; 06 Routers; 04 dongles; 19 Pen Drives and other incriminating material from the premises of the accused and others.