NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, OCT 24
Sleuths of Intelligence unit of Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Tiruppur in association with Officers of RPF Cyber Cell at Southern Railway Headquarters, Chennai have unearthed a Tatkal ticketing scam. In connection with this, S. Yuvarajaa , a resident of Pothiyapalayam in Kangeyam Taluk in Tirupur district on Friday (October 23, 2020).
The scammer had reportedly developed two android applications, namely, ‘Super Tatkal’ and ‘Super Tatkal Pro’ to amass money by fraudulent means.
The fake applications, ‘Super Tatkal’ and ‘Super Tatkal Pro’, enabled the customers to obtain confirmed Tatkal e-tickets owing to the speed of the Application.
The modus operandi was that the users of both the fake mobile applications had to purchase Coins Pack (10 coins worth Rs.20) which was pre-paid.
For each booking, 5 coins were deducted from their coins balance. The payment mode for both the android apps was “Instamojo” payment gateway through which Yuvarajaa got the payments credited to his own Savings Bank Account.
During interrogation, the tout admitted that he had swindled money to the tune of Rs. 20 lakhs from 2016 to 2020. There was approximately one lakh end users who had downloaded the said fake Applications.
The accused has been arrested and Case has been registered under section 143 (2) of Railways Act. It is disheartening to note that an highly qualified person as Yuvaraja, who has done BE (Aeronautical Engineering) in Anna University and M.Tech (Aerospace) from IIT Kharagpur, indulge in such illegal activities.
RPF Cyber Cell at Southern Railway Headquarters, Chennai had played a key role in analysis of data and identification of the fake App developer’s location and also collected digital evidences i.e, Server source code, application source code, end-users list and bank statements of the offender.
Both the illegal Apps, namely, `Super Tatkal’ & ‘Super Tatkal Pro” apps have been deactivated in play store as well as in browser, a release from Southern Railway said.
