RPF busts e-ticket racket with suspected links to terror financing

In its biggest crackdown on illegal ticketing in railways in recent times, the RPF has arrested a madrassa-educated, self-taught software developer from Jharkhand in an e-ticketing racket which is suspected to have links to terror financing, a senior official said on Tuesday. Ghulam Mustafa was arrested from Bhubaneswar. He has 563 personal IRCTC IDs, and a list of 2,400 SBI branches and 600 regional rural banks where he is suspected to have accounts, said Railway Protection Force (RPF) DG Arun Kumar.

"For the last 10 days, the IB, Special Bureau, ED, NIA, Karnataka Police have interrogated Mustafa.

"Dimensions of money laundering and terror financing are suspected," he said in a press briefing.

Kumar also named Hamid Ashraf as the mastermind of the racket which is suspected to generate revenue of Rs 10-15 crore per month. Ashraf, who is also a software developer, was involved in the bombing of a Gonda school in 2019 and is now suspected to have fled to Dubai, Kumar said.