A special team of the Government Railway Police (GRP), Chennai headed by V. Ponram, Deputy Superintendent of Police nabbed a 7-member gang of train robbers belonging to Uttar Pradesh at the Latheri Railway Station near Katpadi on Sunday evening.
According to a release from P. Vijayakumar, Superintendent of Police, GRP, Chennai, investigation revealed that the accused—B. Mithun (25), J. Sunny @ Khannia (23), J. Krishan Kumar (28), J. Ajay (22), J. Bituram (22), B. Deepak Kumar (19) and P. Mukheshkumar (36) — were part of a bigger gang involved in train robberies.
Their modus operandi involves stopping trains by pulling emergency chain and the snatching of the chains of the passengers lying or sleeping at the berths close to the windows by about four to eight persons.
Five cases
The arrested gang was found to have been involved in five cases in the Jolarpet Railway Police Station (RPS), one in Erode RPS, two in Egmore RPS, two in Chengalpattu RPS, one each in Salem Suramangalam and Salem Fairlands.
The gang was involved in four cases in Andhra Pradesh, i.e., in Ongole, Yerraguntla, Kaddappa and Renigunta RPS.
The accused were involved in an offence in which the train escort railway police opened fire when they pelted stones on them. The special team which successfully nabbed the gang included Inspectors of Police, Saravanan, Lawrence, Gunasekaran, Manikandan and Loganathan.
Appreciating the sincerity, devotion to duty and application of mind of the special team, Mr. Vijayakumar said that the team members will be suitably rewarded.
Efforts were on to arrest a few more absconding accused and to recover the robbed properties.
The SP advised the rail passengers to make use of the round-the-clock Helpline 1512 in case of emergency related to police so that swift action could be taken to deal with the situation.
