Indian Railways plans to curb illegal ticket booking, train thefts

Indian Railways plans to curb illegal ticket booking, train thefts
20 Feb 2019

There have been countless reports of train robberies and thefts, especially on luxury trains, bound for long routes.

Not just that, the Indian Railways witnesses a lot of cases of illegal booking of tickets via manipulative online and other methods.

To deal with such criminal activities, the Indian Railways is planning to set up a special cyber cell at the Mumbai Central Railway Station.

Rail crime on the rise: Crime branch
Fact

"Organized groups are involved in high-value theft. Last February, we busted four members of a Haryana gang for stealing jewellery and cash worth Rs. 14 lakh from an NRI traveler's bag at Vadodara station," an anonymous Crime branch officer told the Times of India.

About the Cyber cell
Details

The cyber cell to be inducted at the Mumbai Central Railway Station will reportedly have 28 Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, whose job will be to track train thefts, burglaries, illegal ticket selling practices, and other suspicious activities.

The RPF staff will be trained to analyze call data record (CDR), track mobile numbers, detect IP addresses, ticket booking patterns, bank transaction information, among others.

Studying IP addresses, bank information can help curb illegal ticket-booking
Fact

"Online booking starts at 8 am and highest chances of illegal software being used occurs in the next few minutes. Studying booking data is cumbersome, but the IP address or bank account used for booking serves as evidence in court," according to an unnamed officer.