The Railway police busted an inter-State gang of three robbing train passengers after sedating them with badam milk ..
Based on a complaint filed by a couple from Jodhpur in November last year who were robbed of 120 grams of gold valuables and ₹20,000 in cash, a police team tracked down the accused based on their tatkal tickets.
Soumyalatha S.K., Superintendent of Police, Railways, who supervised the investigation, said the prime accused Mohammed Shaukat, 55, and his associates Mohammed Sattar, 51, from Kolkata in West Bengal, and Mohammed Awad, 58, from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh had given fake mobile phone numbers while getting the tickets.
The police started analysing the phone numbers obtained through tower dump and zeroed in on three mobile numbers which were found operational in Raichur and Puttaparthi. Based on the information, the police tracked down the accused and arrested them.
Investigation revealed that the accused used to target victims travelling in trains with a longer travel time, especially those coming from the northern part of the country.
They used to approach unsuspecting victims and befriend them. When the train was nearing the destination, they gave them juice or milk laced with sleeping pills which helped the accused to remove the valuables and escape without resistance.
Preliminary investigation revealed Shaukat’s involvement in three cases registered at railway police stations in Thiruvananthapuram, Nagercoil, and Garden Reach in Kolkata. The police have alerted their counterparts in different States who are awaiting to take the accused into their custody for further investigation.
