How police outsmarted an IRCTC ticket tout, whose habit of chewing tobacco led to his arrest with all evidence intact

The RFP did not want to barge into the house because he would see them coming and might damage the software he used to book the tickets. They wanted to catch him red-handed.

Gopalkrishna Rai, Sub Inspector, Mumbai Division, Central Railway, who was posted with the IT cell and would probe cases of ticket touts, explained how Gaur operated and how the police played the waiting game with him.

“He (Gaur) was responsible for a software called ‘Nexus’ that was used to procure e-tickets from the IRCTC portal before others. We traced his location to a village in Bhiwandi, where he had a camera set up to see if anyone was coming in. Our teams were camping there for several days, but he did not come out at all and was cautious,” said Rai.

Finally, Gaur blinked first. “On December 20, 2023, he stepped out to spit tobacco, and we apprehended him outside his house and overpowered him,” Rai said.

More ticket touts arrested

The RPF transferred Gaur to the Bhiwandi Road police station, where an FIR was registered against him. His arrest led to the dismantling of an entire network of ticket touts as the RPF nabbed 16 people, including one Hyder Ali from Siwan in Bihar, who had allegedly made the ‘Nexus’ software.

The investigation revealed 23 suspicious bank account transactions. It also discovered 234 e-tickets, valued at Rs 4.85 lakh. Among these, 94 tickets were for live or future journeys, valued at Rs 2.20 lakh, associated with five agent IDs and 684 personal user IDs. Furthermore, 193 suspected tout leads were identified and circulated across various zones of Indian Railways.

On October 13, in a function held in Gujarat, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw honoured Rai wth a medal for ‘best investigation’ for his role in busting the IRCTC ticket scam module.