Nagpur: With summer vacations, festivals and wedding travel increasing the demand for train tickets, the Railway Protection Force (RPF), South East Central Railway (SECR), Nagpur Division, arrested seven ticket touts in a swift four-day operation between March 6 and 9.The crackdown, conducted under ‘Operation Uplabdh’, targeted rampant illegal trading and black-marketing of e-tickets.Led by divisional security commissioner Deep Chandra Arya and supervised by Inspector General and principal chief security commissioner Munawwar Khurshid, RPF teams carried out intensive checking at multiple locations across Nagpur division and adjoining districts in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.During the drive, officers examined mobiles, laptops and computers, uncovering widespread misuse of IRCTC user IDs to fraudulently book tatkal and premium tatkal e-tickets for immediate resale.On March 6, Santosh Kakudiya was nabbed at an online services shop in Bhooma tehsil with ten old reserved e-tickets valued at ₹10,686. On the same day, Rahul Vishwakarma in Nainpur, Mandla district, was caught with nine old e-tickets worth ₹4,630.On March 7, three arrests were made, including Mohd Shamim in Maharajpur with three current and four old e-tickets totalling over ₹10,000. Rohan Mehar was caught near Navegaon with 14 e-tickets worth ₹42,088, plus a mobile phone valued at ₹24,000. An individual loitering near the Rajnandgaon reservation counter was caught with 14 old, two current and one cancelled e-tickets worth ₹17,000.On March 8, Tanmay Jain, operator of an online ticketing service in Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh), was arrested after confessing he illegally booked tickets using his personal ID and charged ₹50–80 extra per ticket despite not having an authorised agent status. The RPF authorities seized 33 e-tickets worth ₹47,243, along with a laptop valued at ₹30,000.Finally, on March 9, Ajay Kawde in Gondia was apprehended with 15 tatkal/premium tatkal e-tickets worth ₹75,299 and a mobile phone.All the seven accused were booked under Section 143 of the Railways Act, 1989, and the seized tickets and electronic devices were handed over to the authorities. The total value of recovered items and illegal tickets runs into several lakhs, exposing the organised nature of the racket.The RPF has appealed to rail passengers and citizens to promptly report any suspected touting activity to the nearest RPF post or national railway helpline 139, assuring of total confidentiality to informants. The ongoing ‘Operation Uplabdh’ underscores the force’s resolve to safeguard genuine passengers and restore fairness in railway bookings during the high-demand holiday rush.
