Case : Fake travel agent

State : Maharashtra

City : Mumbai

Sections of Law 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 34 of IPC r/w 143 of Indian Railway Act 1989.

Background The accused in this case was posing to be a genuine railway ticket agent and has been purchasing tickets online by using stolen credit cards of non residents. The accused created fraudulent electronic records/profiles, which he used to carry out the transactions. The tickets so purchased were sold for cash to other passengers. Such events occurred for a period of about four months. The online ticket booking service provider took notice of this and lodged a complaint with the cyber crime investigation cell.
Investigation The service provider gave the IP addresses, which were used for the fraudulent online bookings, to the investigating team. IP addresses were traced to cyber cafes in two locations. The investigating team visited the cyber cafes but was not able to get the desired logs as they were not maintained by the cyber café owners. The investigating team was able to short list the persons present at cyber cafes when the bookings were made. The respective owners of the cyber cafes were able to identify two persons who would regularly book railway tickets. The investigating team then examined the passengers who had traveled on these tickets. They stated that they had received the tickets from the accused and identified the delivery boy who delivered the tickets to them. On the basis of this evidence the investigating team arrested two persons who were identified in an identification parade.