Mumbai Mirror

• The RPF has physically verified passenger data, questioned passengers on trains and will now get handwriting experts to check requisition forms to comb out touts
• Investigations reveal that tickets worth nearly Rs 2 lakh were bought between February 10 and March 1, 2007, through touts

Mumbai, Sep 1: Security officials of the Konkan Railways (KR) are tying up the loose ends on what could be Indian Railways’ biggest anti-tout operation. Spread over Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka, it includes physically verifying passenger data on reservation forms, questioning passengers on running trains and conducting raids on touts across Mumbai.

Handwriting experts could also be pencilled in to check reservation requisition forms.

Officials say charge sheets will be filed in the next few days against the accused arrested since the operation began in late March.

A chance observation showed that several reservation centres on KR were issuing too many tickets for journeys to the north, starting from Mumbai, which prompted the operation, says Vinod Dhaka, chief security commissioner of KR.

The RPF suspects that touts use reservation centres on Konkan Railway to book tickets on north-bound trains for their clients in Mumbai. It’s easier to get  tickets from smaller centres as compared to the usually crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus

Modus Operandi

“We suspected that touts were using reservation centres on Konkan Railway to book tickets on north-bound trains for their clients in Mumbai,” explains Dhaka.

These centres have smaller reservation lines and thus tickets can be confirmed faster.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) started by collecting reservation forms from KR centres such as Chiplun, Ratnagiri, Kudal, Thivim, Karmali, Madgaon, Panjim, Karwar and Udipi mainly for the north-bound trains leaving from Mumbai.

They isolated sleeper class tickets for journeys starting from Mumbai booked between February 10 to March 1, 2007, which is the heaviest season booking.

“The teams then verified forms and found wrong addresses, fake telephone numbers and names,” says investigating officer SP Singh of KR RPF, “It took us nearly a month to verify them and RPF personnel visited more than a hundred such places.”

Next they tracked down more than 500 people who had booked tickets through touts. Many were ‘surveyed’ on running trains. Investigation revealed a vast network of Mumbai-based travel agents, who were then raided. Ten persons were arrested and their computers and office stationery seized.

One of the accused, Babulal Jain of Prabhat Tour & Travels, had even given his ATM card to his tout in Udipi, Lambodri Tonse. Tonse could thus withdraw money from his employer’s account to buy tickets.

“The modus operandi of these agents revealed they had touts in places in smaller centres on the Konkan Railway trail and used courier services to send tickets and money back and forth.

“We will even invite handwriting experts to prove that the handwriting on several forms found in centres across many states are of the same person,” says Dhaka.