RailEnquiry

PUNE: A man was arrested on Sunday by the government railway police for a robbery on the Maharashtra Express near Jejuri on July 22.The man has been identified as Nitin Datta Survase (23) of Loni Kalbhor.The police said that Survase's three accomplices are at large. the police suspect that they were also involved in the robberies on the Jodhpur-Pune Express on July 25 and Goa-Nizamuddin Express on July 27.A government railway police team led by inspector Suryakant Naukudkar made the arrest. Naukudkar said that assistant police inspector Ramdas Shelke had received a tip-off regarding Survase. "We laid a trap at Loni Kalbhor and nabbed him," he said.On July 22, Survase and his accomplices had boarded the Maharashtra Express at the Jejuri railway station and had robbed cell phones and cash totalling to Rs 18,000 from passengers. Naukudkar said two cell phones were seized from Survase, which he and his accomplices had looted from the passengers.He said the police are verifying Survase's police record. "His other accomplices are criminals on police records. We have information about them and will arrest them soon," Naukudkar said.Meanwhile, the government railway police suspect the same gang was involved in the train robberies on July 25 and July 27. Naukudkar said the police are investigating further.On July 25, a gang of six unidentified men robbed 18 passengers of their gold ornaments and cash totalling to Rs 1.21 lakh on the Jodhpur-Pune Express between Lonavla and Chinchwad. On July 27, a gang of four armed men robbed around 18 passengers of Rs 1.05 lakh on the Goa-Nizamuddin Express train between Vathar and Saswad.

Following the three recent robberies, the government railway police decided to deploy armed policemen on the 50 trains which pass through Pune district during the night.