Six dropouts, all under-21, held for train dacoity

Mumbai: The GRP nabbed six school dropouts aged 19 to 21 years for robbing passengers of the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT)-Patliputra train near Kalyan five days ago. According to officials, the same accused had robbed passengers of the Kushinagar Express too a few days ago, but the passengers had not filed any complaint then. As of now, one accused in the case is still absconding.

GRP officers said that two of the accused belong to Kalyan, two are from Kasara and two are from Igatpuri, and they were thus well-versed with the technical halts of the train, apart from being aware about its speed and stops. They entered the train in Kalyan, snatched mobiles and cash worth Rs 28,000 from five different passengers and alighted at Kasara when the train made a technical halt there. The accused, at a certain point in time, had also worked as hawkers at various railway stations.

The arrested accused have been identified as Shabaz Shaikh (22), Saddam Hausaain Shaikh (20), Sachin Masne (18), Satish Baludonde Alias Satya (20), Ravindra Dhongade alias Rahul alias Ravya (18) and Sagar Telam (22). A search for one Aakash Manohar is still on, said the GRP officers. The officers have recovered 10 mobile phones of various companies, worth Rs 70,000 in total, along with two knives and a fighter punch from the accused. All the accused were arrested around 6 pm on Sunday. The GRP officials added that the accused had robbed over Rs 28,000 from the passengers.

The officials further said that they had arrested Saddam first after a tip-off, and he accepted his crime and directed the officials to the other accused, who were arrested from Igatpuri and Khadawali. Another accused, Satya, is a repeat offender and was booked earlier as well for dacoity, having been released on bail two months ago, the officials said.

The incident took place on December 19 in the LTT–Pataliputra train, which left from LTT station around 11.35 pm. The accused had bordered the train at Kalyan and looted the cash and mobile phones from the passengers at knifepoint, before alighting from the train near Khardi station.

GRP commissioner Niket Kaushik said, “They boarded the train from Kalyan and were aware that the train takes a few halts between Kalyan and Kasara due to technical reasons. So they planned things accordingly, looting the passengers and pulling the chain near a technical halt to make sure that the train stops there. Following that, the gang got off the train and escaped.”