Great train robbery case cracked, 7 held

BENGALURU: The Udupi police have cracked the sensational train robbery case, in which a jewellery company employee was robbed of ornaments worth over Rs 1.28 crore on September 18. Seven people, including two former employees of the gold firm, have been arrested.

Rajender Singh, an employee of a Mumbai-based gold company which manufactures gold ornaments and supplies it to jewellers in different parts of the country, was travelling in Netravathi Express, when he was robbed of 4.112 kg gold worth about Rs 1.28 crore near Surathkal railway station at gunpoint. 

A special team led by the Kaup CPI, collected details of those who travelled in the train and CCTV camera footage from various railway stations before arresting the accused. The team visited Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra in trail of the case, said Udupi SP Dr Sanjeev M. Patil.

One of the accused, Yogeshwar Singh Rao, was an employee at the company, GM Gold, about 4-5 years ago. He was fired for cheating When he was in prison in connection with another case, he met Devaraj and they plotted to rob a company employee ferrying gold. Yogeshwar also wanted revenge for being sacked.

He was released in March. Meanwhile, another accused, Prabhulal Gurjar, also a former employee of the same company, approached Yogeshwar asking for a '10 lakh loan. Yogeshwar agreed, on the condition that Prabhulal provide him details of the amount of jewellery, dates and the train it would be sent in. 

Yogeshwar asked Devaraj for help. Devaraj, who was still in Udaipur prison, sent his associate Mithun alias Rohith Shetty to Yogehwar. Rohith, who is the first accused in the case, and Yogeshwar put the final touches to their plan.

Mithun asked his friends Pintu Arjun Chaudhuri of Bihar, Mukthar Ibrahim and Riyaz K. to come to Karwar or Udupi railway station. 

The team had twice planned to rob company employees taking jewellery to other parts of the country, but failed. Finally on September 17, based on the information given by Prabhulal Gurjar, Rohith Shetty, Pintu Arjun Chaudhuri and Yogeshwar Singh Rao took the same train in which Rajender Singh was carrying ornaments to Kerala. They boarded the train at Panvel, while Ibrahim and Riyaz got in at Kundapur. 

They robbed Rajender as the train approached Surathkal station and fled in a taxi. At Sullia, they shared the booty. After the arrest, police recovered two gold biscuits weighing 600.190 gm and ornaments worth Rs 31.80 lakh. They also seized a country revolver, two live rounds, Rs 10,000 cash, a car worth Rs 8 lakh bought from the proceeds, six mobile phones, knife and cash.