Superfast action: Train robbers nabbed

The railway police authorities were tight-lipped about the arrests citing reason that any disclosure at this stage might hamper further probe. When contacted, Superintendent of Nagpur Railway Police Prabhakar Tayade said they were questioning certain hardened criminals but refused to confirm the arrests.

A special squad comprising personnel drawn from the city crime branch, the rural and the railway police, was formed after the first train dacoity occurred Sunday night on the Howrah-Ahmedabad Express near Khapri. The same squad was entrusted with the probe into the dacoity bid at Godhani.

Sources said the fivesuspects were arrested today by the their counterparts in Kalmeshwar. They were identified as Bhupesh Sham Indurkar, Siddharth Janbandhu, Vijay Wankhede, all residents of Bara Kholi at Indora, Bobby Khobragade and Avinash Meshram, both residents Jhingabai Takli here. The first three are criminals with a long history sheet in the police records, sources added.

The abortive attempt was the second incident of its kind within a short span of three days.

Just two days before the first incident near Khapri, a potential disaster was averted when one of the drivers of the Howrah-bound Geetanjali Express managed to negotiate the superfast train till Wardha despite getting hurt in the attack by an intruder, caught inside the engine.

The assistant driver in this train had fallen unconscious due to severe head injury inflicted by the intruder while the driver who too sustained similar wounds, managed to hold on to himself till the train reached Wardha.

One can only imagine the consequences had the two driversfallen unconscious with the intruder making good his escape after the train slowed down during the scuffle.

If anything, these incidents serve as an apt pointer to the growing feeling of insecurity among railway travellers. "People will lose faith in travelling by rail if such things keep on occurring," said Baldev Purohit, a member of Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee (DRUCC). The railway police have been shaken enough to initiate steps aimed at preventing such incidents. Like, stepping up the patrol, deputing armed police guards aboard every other train passing Nagpur during night hours and instructing more deterrent actions like opening fire at miscreants looting train passengers.

"We’ve already ordered our men not to hesitate if things boil down to a situation where they are required to fire at miscreants attempting train dacoity," asserted Tayade while talking to The Indian Express this afternoon.

He said the police guards aboard the Kerala Express did chase the miscreants forsome distance but were handicapped by the pitch darkness.

Soon after, the police laid traps at various places in the vicinity of the spot where the dacoity attempt was made. Tayade and other senior officials of the railway police were personally supervising the police action which, nevertheless, was a cropper. The dog squad, summoned at the site after a shirt was recovered from the railway tracks, proved to be of little help.

When asked whether the two dacoity incidents could be the handiwork of one and the same criminal outfit, Tayade said the police were yet to come across any indication of this kind although their suspicion revolves around these lines.

But cops fail to catch jewel thief

In a daring incident, unidentified burglars picked up gold-silver ornaments worth Rs 1.93 lakh from a jewellery shop at Sitabuldi in Nagpur even while a massive combing operation by the police was on throughout Tuesday night here following armed dacoities at Laxmi Nagar earlier in the evening.

Of the 83history-sheeters rounded up between Monday midnight and early Wednesday morning, six were held from the Sitabuldi police area. Yet, the culprit(s) managed to pull off such a big theft.

Crime branch officials, probing the theft, claimed to have identified one of the suspects but no arrest was reported. Separate teams have been despatched to nab the suspect — an "expert climber" with a typical modus operandi that helped the police establish his involvement.

The officials, however, refused to divulge his name for obvious reasons but sounded confident about his arrest soon.

Talking to reporters on Tuesday evening, Deputy Commissioner (Crime) B J Kangale said, the incident which occurred at the jewellery shop-cum-residence of Narendra A Punekar at Hanuman Galli off the Sitabuldi main road, came to light this morning. The occupants noticed that the display shelves in the shop, situated on the front side, were in total disarray.

What seems to have disturbed the police is the fact that the shop owner tookall precautions to adequately fortify the premises from the front side. But the rear was left equally vulnerable for any hardened thief to pull off such a burglary.

Prior to leaving the premises, the burglar threw some human excreta at the entrance and exit points apparently in anticipation of misleading the police dog. It was this act of the thief that has helped the police establish his identity. The suspect in all probability has pulled it off with the help of an accomplice, the police feel. The stolen booty included a couple of Mangalsutras worth Rs 17,000, two bracelets (Rs 11,000), a couple of necklace (Rs 21,500), 12 rings (Rs 20,000), 12 lockets (Rs 20,000), 24 tops (Rs 34,000), 20 pairs of earrings (Rs 17,000), an assortment of nose rings (Rs 30,000), 150 silver idols, 12 silver glasses, four silver bowls and other silver articles.