Chennai: A businessman from Salem was robbed of his suitcase with Rs 10.75 lakh cash in it while traveling in the Salem-Chennai Express train on Thursday. This is the same train in which unidentified robbers drilled a hole through the roof and decamped with Rs 5.75 crore belonging to the RBI last year. While the businessman's suitcase was found abandoned on the Tambaram railway station platform, the joy was shortlived as the person who fled with the suitcase escaped with Rs 5 lakh and left the remaining cash.
M Ravikumar of Thadakapatty in Salem was travelling in the first AC compartment of the train, which departed from Salem at 11 pm on Wednesday. He was carrying two suitcases, one with cash and the other with his personal belongings. Ravikumar woke up when the train was in Kodambakkam and was preparing to get down at Egmore when he noticed that his suitcase was missing. On getting down at Egmore, he approached the station manager and filed a complaint with the Government Railway Police.
Since the train's previous stop was Tambaram, Railway police alerted the police there and checked the CCTV footage to find a man alighting from the first AC compartment with Ravikumar's suitcase. "The man looked like a destitute and was carrying a cloth bag around his shoulder", a police officer said. A few minutes later, the man abandoned the suitcase under one of the benches on railway platform-5 and escaped. Ravikumar and a police team rushed to Tambaram and after scanning the suitcase for explosives, it was opened to find Rs.5 lakh was missing from it. Egmore Railway Police have secured the abandoned cash and began enquiries into the identity of the man who escaped with the cash. "The passenger told us that he was loitering outside the first class AC compartment until midnight seeking alms from passengers," a police official said. Further investigations are on.
