NOIDA: A 47-year-old man was arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for allegedly hacking into the IRCTC's e-ticketing website and using illegal mobile applications to book tatkal tickets and VIP quota tickets and sell them at a higher price.

The accused, Dadri resident Moinuddin Chisti, runs a railway ticketing shop at Ayodhya Ganj in Greater Noida and holds a BSc in mathematics. He allegedly earned Rs 30 lakh through the sale of tickets over the last two years.
The RPF's Dadri unit allegedly got a tip-off on Chisti from Prayagraj's cybercrime unit after it was found that tatkal and premium berths were being booked suspiciously through a mobile number active in the Dadri area. The cybercrime cell claimed the accused used three illegal software applications - Nexus, Bigboss and Sikka_V2 - to create personal user IDs on the IRCTC website, said SK Verma, RPF Dadri officer in charge.

These illegal apps allow users to save time by auto-filling details, like source, destination, date, train and coach details and payment method, for booking in IRCTC forms and completing the online booking process in a matter of just a few seconds.
In July, the RPF along with police teams from Dadri and Aligarh had booked a 22-year-old computer engineer for illegally booking tatkal train tickets through the Nexus app and selling them for four times the price. The accused had earned Rs 15 lakh through the sale of tickets.
Verma told TOI that a technical analysis of the mobile phone's IP address took them to Chisti's railway ticketing shop in Ayodhya Ganj. "Chisti was arrested late on Monday evening under Section 143 (the penalty for unauthorized carrying on of a business of procuring and supply of railway tickets) of the Home Railways Act, 1989. He was sent to jail on Tuesday after being produced before a magistrate. Two laptops, one printer, one mobile phone and some cash was seized from his shop. We also found that he recently booked 88 train e-tickets, worth Rs.1.55 lakh," an RPF official said.