RailEnquiry

CHENNAI: A five-member gang which regularly robbed passengers of unreserved coaches on the Alappuzha-Dhanbad Express has been busted and stolen articles worth about 2.5 lakh have been recovered, the Government Railway Police said on Saturday. The gang had been targeting the train for the last eight months.
Police said N Babu, 23, of Thiruvottiyur, A Pradeep Kumar of Kathivakkam, A Mohammed Baijul of Gummidipoondi, S Rajesh, 25, of Nellore and S Suresh, 24, of Bangalore would often board crowded unreserved coach of the train at Perambur, brandish knives and rob passengers of chains, rings, mobile phones, cash and other valuables before getting off at Basin Bridge. Based on the inputs of S Swamy, 54, of Tirupati, who was robbed of three rings and a chain by the gang on February 20, GRP personnel drew up a portrait of one of the culprits Suresh. Swamy told police that the culprit was wearing a cap and described his appearance. A woman passenger also managed to get a photograph of the culprit on her mobile phone. "This is the first time we have used a picture portrait to nab culprits. The rest of the gang was arrested based on the information provided by Suresh. The gang had bought a refrigerator, a washing machine and a two-wheeler with the fortune amassed through successful strikes over eight months," said R Arumugam, IG, Government Railway Police. Police said the gang targeted the Alappuzha-Dhanbad Express because of the timings — it reached Chennai at 10.15pm and left after 15 minutes. Most of the passengers were poor north Indian labourers who did not lodge a complaint. The members of the gang struck a friendship while working as vendors on different trains and hatched a plan to rob unreserved passengers of this train, police said. "They used to make their way into the middle of the coach through the crowd, identify their victims and then strike," said a GRP officer.