Two individuals were apprehended for hacking the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) e-booking website and illicitly generating hundreds of Tatkal tickets. Rajesh Mittal (55) and Krupa Patel (24) were found to have exploited illegal software named Gadar and Nexus to carry out their activities. Their unauthorised actions resulted in the creation of 652 tickets, earning them a staggering Rs 16.17 lakh.
The Mumbai vigilance team acted swiftly after receiving a tip-off about Rajesh’s suspicious Tatkal ticket bookings. Alongside the Umra Police, they raided a flat in the Citylight area on June 25. Inside the flat, they discovered Krupa and Rajesh working on six laptops, generating journey-cum-reservation tickets (JCRT). Among the 54 live JCRT tickets, Mittal had charged a total of Rs 1.51 lakh. Fortunately, all 54 tickets were blocked before any journeys took place.
Further investigation revealed that Mittal had booked a total of 598 tickets worth Rs 14.66 lakh during May and June 2024. The vigilance team also uncovered card details and other payment information stored on the laptops.
The duo was arrested by the Umra police based on a complaint filed by vigilance inspector Sanjay Sharma. They now face charges related to cheating under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.
Interestingly, the technical team discovered a whopping 973 robot-generated user IDs and passwords used for ticket bookings. Mittal had been selling these credentials for prices ranging from Rs 600 to Rs 900 each.
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