Operation Vande Bharat: India Today exposes how touts are selling tickets at higher prices

Black-marketeers seem to be hijacking the country's massive repatriation mission amidst virus restrictions, with an India Today investigation finding various travel operators selling Vande Bharat tickets to stranded passengers at a high premium.

Remember, India launched this special service on May 7 as the raging pandemic brought international travel to a screeching halt. According to official data, more than a million Indians have been brought back home and more than 130,000 flown out on Air India's Vande Bharat flights so far.

That said, passengers frustrated at sold-out labels on the airline's dismally-slow booking portal are being fleeced by unscrupulous agents right in the national capital, India Today's undercover probe found.