An armed gang of dacoits went on a looting spree on a train near Kulti station on Asansol railway division at midnight. The armed gang also assaulted several passengers and allegedly even tried to harass some women. The robbers made off with cash, jewellery, laptops and mobile worth lakhs of rupees. But later six dacoits
were arrested. “The armed gang looted the passengers for nearly 40 minutes. Six of them have been arrested and we are thoroughly probing the incident,” divisional railway manager, Asansol division, J.N. Jha said.
As soon as 5027 Up Maurya Express pulled out of Kulti station, some dacoits who were travelling as passengers, pulled the chain. The train stopped at Kulti link cabin at around 11.30 pm. Their accomplices who were apparently waiting there also boarded the train.
According to eyewitnesses, the dacoits looted three sleeper coaches and two AC compartments. The robbers badly hacked a jawan of Gorkha Regiment Vijay Shreshta when he tried to put up resistance when they were trying to misbehave with a woman and her daughter. “I told them that I was an Army man but when they did not stop, I attacked them with my khukhri. They then snatched my weapon and hacked my hand,” he recounted.
Another passenger Ajay Srivastava’s finger was cut. The orgy of loot and violence continued for nearly 40 minutes. When the train reached Chittaranjan at around 12.45, the passengers exploded in anger. The officer-in-charge of GRP, Rama Shankar Pande registered their FIRs. Thereafter, the GRP, RPF and state police launched a joint search operation and managed to nab a man near Tendua railway gate in Salanpur police station. This man Anwar Ansari was a member of the gang. From his possession, the police recovered a part of the booty comprising dozens of mobile phones and wrist watches and Rs 14,000 cash.
By interrogating Ansari police learnt that his associates were travelling in Asansol-Jhajha passenger. They raided the train at Chittaranjan station and apprehended five dacoits.