A news is going viral on social media that an IIT Kharagpur graduate created an alternate railway ticket booking app called Super Tatkal, which worked faster than the IRCTC app. He earned ₹20 lakhs through this app but was later arrested by the police.
Sharing this news, the INC Kerala wrote, “Innovating can land you in jail and Piyush Goyal wants you to innovate whenever he decides.” (Archived link)
Innovating can land you in jail and Piyush Goyal wants you to innovate whenever he decides pic.twitter.com/qHsCZziWfT
— Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) April 4, 2025
Gems of Babus stated, “Minister: We need to Design, Innovate & Lead. Le Innovator being arrested in Vishwaguru.” (Archived link)
Minister: We need to Design, Innovate & Lead.
— Gems (@gemsofbabus_) April 4, 2025
Le Innovator being arrested in Vishwaguru.🤡 pic.twitter.com/Wrc7yef3lW
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Fact Check
During our fact-check, we searched for related keywords and found a report by India Today. We found that this news is from November 2020. An IIT postgraduate from Kharagpur, S. Yuvaraja, had created an app called Super Tatkal and its Pro versions. Through this app, railway tickets could be booked slightly faster compared to IRCTC.
Yuvaraja earned around Rs 20 lakh through this app. However, the app was later taken down from the Play Store, and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) tracked down and arrested Yuvaraja.
He was arrested because the Super Tatkal app was considered illegal, as it violated Section 143(2) of the Indian Railway Act, 1989.
This section deals with unauthorized ticket booking activities. Under this section, running a business of booking or procuring railway tickets without being an authorized agent, and using or developing unauthorized software to access or manipulate the IRCTC system, is prohibited.
This app bypassed official IRCTC security layers like CAPTCHA, which are meant to ensure equal access for all users. The Super Tatkal app gave its users an unfair advantage.
Moreover, the app’s creator did not have IRCTC authorization, yet he was offering ticket booking services and earning money from it. This was a violation of Section 143 of the Railway Act, which prohibits unauthorized ticket booking activities.
In the app, Yuvaraja implemented a coin-based monetization system. While the app didn’t directly sell tickets, users would buy virtual coins—for example, 10 coins for ₹20—with each ticket booking deducting 5 coins.
Payments were processed through Instamojo, and the money was credited directly to Yuvaraja’s account. By purchasing these coins, users could bypass certain steps and directly log in to their IRCTC accounts, which made the booking process faster for them.
We also found a tweet dated November 4, 2020, from the IRCTC account which states that “The software was used illegally to book tkts denying genuine users to book tkts. Use of illegal software is prohibited under Rly act. There is no innovation as autofill features were already available with IRCTC which were disabled to ensure level playing field for all the users.” (Archived link)
The software was used illegally to book tkts denying genuine users to book tkts. Use of illegal software is prohibited under Rly act. There is no innovation as autofill features were already available with IRCTC which were disbled to ensure level playing field for all the users. pic.twitter.com/fcX7I8FWIm
— IRCTC (@IRCTCofficial) November 4, 2020
Through this tweet, IRCTC stated that the app was unfair and illegal as it violated equal access to ticket booking.
| Claim | An IIT Kharagpur graduate created an alternate railway ticket booking app called Super Tatkal but was later arrested by the police. |
| Claimed by | Social media users |
| Fact Check | The app creator was arrested for violating Section 143(2) of the Indian Railways Act. His software was being used illegally to bypass IRCTC’s security features to book railway tickets, and he was generating income through unauthorized means. |
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