994 held in connection with software 'Real Mango' used to book train tickets illegally

The Railway Protection Force has disrupted the use of illegal software ''Real Mango'' for cornering confirmed train reservation during the coronavirus pandemic and made 994 arrests in an investigation spanning West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Gujarat, RPF DG Arun Kumar said.

New Delhi: Nine hundred and ninety-four people have been arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in connection with a software called 'Real Mango', which was used to illegally acquire tickets in the special trains amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Arun Kumar, Director General of the RPF, fake tickets worth 87.70 lakhs were blocked based on information received by them and total arrest included 239 agents.

"On August 9, a software called Rare (Real) Mango was traced. On investigation, it was revealed that it had to do with fraud in railway ticketing and a man named Pankaj Kumar Prajapati was arrested from Pratapgarh. A detailed campaign was further carried out based on inputs received by the RPF. People connected to the network used phone numbers and KYCs of labourers and poor people to get railway tickets and open accounts." Kumar said.

"On the basis of information received from Pankaj Kumar Prajapati, three more individuals, called Matiar Khan also known as (aka) Subir Biswas aka Amit Roy and Rehan Khan aka Shamsher Ansari were arrested. Further investigation revealed more names and consequently, more arrests. Subhendu Biswas, also known as Mango Sir, the person handling the entire network was also arrested," Kumar added.

The DG further said,"'Mango Sir's business manager Rahul Roy aka 'Mango Guy' and the developer of the software, Chandra Gupta, were also caught. So far, more than 50 people of this network have been found in Pratapgarh, Silchar, Surat and Kolkata."

Kumar said that the network made transactions using crypto-currency which was later converted into real currency through various means.

"This network and the software have been completely destroyed by the RPF. There is no link of this network with earlier such cases or Anti-national groups in any other country," Kumar added.

He warned people against purchasing train tickets through unauthorised vendors as those not only cost more money but if the network gets caught, they cannot travel using the ticket hence the money gets wasted. He appealed to people to buy only from authorised vendors.

(ANI)