IITian Arrested For Counterfeit: Develops Faster Railway Ticket Booking App
An IIT Kharagpur postgraduate was arrested for illegally making money by creating an app, promising a faster railway ticket booking.
Tamil Nadu, India:
An IIT Kharagpur postgraduate student, Yuvarajaa S of Tamil Nadu was arrested for illegally making money through an android app which claimed faster railway ticket booking. The youth, who also happens to be a graduate of Aanna University, has been developing apps since 2016.
The student found the original Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) application to be too slow. Thus, decided to create an alternative for the same.
The free app had two variants, ‘Super Tatkal’ and ‘Super Tatkal pro’. It was not long before the app hit one lakh followers. The app made use of coin system. A pack of ten coin asked rupees 20, while booking a ticket would cost 5 coins.
Reports indicate that the youth was tracked by cyber cell authorities of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) by tracking his server source code, application source code, end user list and his bank statements.
The RPF bypassed the system IRTC, transporting the money in student’s account. The RPF has previously registered a case against the student under section 143(2) of the Railway Act.
According to Birendra Kumar, the Southern Railway Principal Chief Security Commissioner, the youth wasn’t an authorized agent of Indian Railways.
The student was illegally making money through the app as it app bypassed the system IRTC. The payment was done through instamojo gateway instead, transferring money directly into students’ bank account.
He was arrested for bypassing the current system of IRCTC and the application was taken down with immediate effects.