Railways Protection Force Cyber arrested the S Yuvarajaa, an IIT graduate, over creating a fake app and swindling around Rs 20 lakhs.
The man was identified as S Yuvarajaa, a resident of Pothiyapalayam in Kangeyam taluk in Tirupur, the New Indian Express reported. He had an educational qualification of BE (Aeronautical) from Anna University and MTech (Aerospace) from IIT-Kharagpur.
The man had reportedly developed two Android applications called 'Super Tatkal' and 'Super Tatkal Pro,' which helped the customers receive confirmed Tatkal e-tickets. The speed of the application was faster than that of the official IRCTC app. Users of both the apps had to purchase a pre-paid coin pack (10 coins worth Rs 20). Both the apps used ‘Instamojo’ payment gateway, through which the money got credited to Yuvarajaa’s savings bank account.
During the interrogation, he admitted that he had swindled around Rs 20 lakh between 2016 and 2020. The app had approximately one lakh end users, reported the National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE).
A case was registered under section 143 (2) of the Railways Act for ‘bypassing the railway system and making money illegally.’ The RPF Cyber Cell at Southern Railway Headquarters, Chennai, identified the fake app developer's location and collected digital evidence, i.e., server source code and bank statements. Both the fake apps were later deactivated from the Google Playstore.
After this incident, a Twitter user who claimed to be Yuvarajaa's friend said he had made it a point to note that all the payments were directly made to IRCTC. He said that Yuvaraja was falsely accused.
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