Passengers quot;payquot; for shared meal

MAY 8: Vijay Behera, a sub broker at the Dalal Street Stock Exchange, has paid a very heavy price - over Rs two lakh - for eating a biscuit ...

MAY 8: Vijay Behera, a sub broker at the Dalal Street Stock Exchange, has paid a very heavy price 8211; over Rs two lakh 8211; for eating a biscuit offered by a fellow passenger on the Amritsar-Dadar Express last week. Behera, who fell senseless after eating the intoxicant-laced biscuit, was robbed of trade documents worth Rs two lakh and cash and jewellery worth more than Rs 7,000.

Behera had boarded the train on April 29 from New Delhi and befriended a soldier named Sushil Pandey who was coming to Mumbai on a visit. The duo was later joined by a man, whose name Behera said he doesn8217;t remember. On May 1, as the train entered Igatpuri at around 4.30 am, the stranger woke them up and offered them cream biscuits with tea. When Behera refused, the man, seemingly offended, put the biscuit in Behera8217;s cup of tea. Though Behera threw the biscuit away, he felt that the tea tasted very sour, a view echoed by his companion Pandey, who had eaten nearly two biscuits. That was the last thing Behera heard, as he fell downunconscious. When he came to at Dadar station, he found his bags containing the trade documents, a gold chain and some cash missing. He also noticed Pandey lying senseless beside him. Pandey reportedly regained his senses at a city municipal hospital two days later.

Behera and Pandey fell for one of the oldest tricks in the trade. And railway police say this crime has been assuming alarming proportions in the past few years. According to the Government Railway Police GRP, Mumbai Division, more than 200 such cases have been reported in the last five years. 8220;Starting as an aberration, this type of robbery has become a trend now,8221; said S S Suradkar, Special Inspector General, GRP.

And as worrying as the crime rate is the rate of detection: last year, the GRP managed to solve just seven of 48 registered cases. This figure is actually an improvement from the previous years, whose average success rate is just around eight per cent. Of the total 227 cases registered in the last five years, only 22 have beensolved and 29 arrested. The GRP claims that in most cases, detection falters simply because the thief, who travels on a confirmed ticket, invariably uses false addresses. 8220;In one case, our officers went as far as to Calcutta in search of a man, only to find one of the richest businessmen in the city residing at the address given on the requisition slip,8221; said Senior Inspector Ashok Desai.

Biscuits, cold drinks, tea and coffee are the most common forms of food used to drug potential victims. 8220;The only way out is not to accept food from unknown persons,8221; advised Desai. The absence of gangs is, ironically, another hindrance. 8220;Since the robbers are not organised, suspects are hard to find,8221; says Desai. And the crime has also got a helping hand from the railways8217; technology upgradation. Computerised reservation systems enable booking of tickets for any train from various centres. 8220;Development has meant that the crimes have increased in sophistication,8221; said Desai. To prevent such incidents, the GRPoffers a simple solution: Love thy neighbour, but don8217;t partake of his meal, you might end up losing yours.