The great train robbery: Banks and Railways stupid

Chennai: Serious questions are being raised regarding security laxity helping the Great Train Robbery of August 8-9, with experts alleging that the security drill for the movement of such a huge load of cash — Rs 342.7 crore in soiled currency notes — had been violated in multiple ways, making it easy for thieves to cut a hole in the roof of the wagon and carry away Rs 5.75 crore, unchallenged. And remain undetected till now.

Actually, security lapses glare at one’s face right from the start of that miserable operation. “To begin with, why did they have to send such a large consignment of money in a railway wagon attached to a crowded passenger train and move it during night time?” wondered former Director General of Police A X Alexander.

Famous for his expertise in handling violent extremism in his tenure as the head of the state intelligence, specialising in Eelam militancy, he must be wondering how the various agencies would have handled the crisis if only some extremist outfit took over Train No 11064 on the night of August 8 and seized its parcel van, VPH-08831, loaded with 226 boxes of soiled currency notes collected from various bank branches in Salem region by nodal Indian Overseas Bank and sent to Chennai for the RBI to take charge of them and destroy the contents.

The noting on the transit papers might have called the consignment 'soiled currency notes' but the truth remains that they were still legal tender and would have been potently dangerous landing in the hands of an extremist group needing money to buy weapons, recruit assassins and set off violent chaos amid people.

“I understand that the banks and the railways have been moving such high-value cash consignments in the past. If disasters had not struck us so far, we have been just lucky”, said Mr Alexander, sounding worried. “Why are they still persisting with ancient practices like this instead of adopting new technology? They could collect the money in regional centres and destroy the soiled notes using heavy-duty incinerators under the RBI supervision. It would cost so much less flying in RBI executives periodically to the districts to carry out these operations instead of ferrying those boxes by railway wagons attached to passenger trains”, said the former DGP.

Read: Great Train Robbery: At Chetpet railway yard, cash wagon was in ‘no man’s land’

Just imagine the scene if some armed extremist group held up a cash wagon linked to passenger coaches carrying many elders, women and children. And if the train happens to be moving at night time!

A top Central security specialist, requesting anonymity, wondered whether those in charge of these bank-railway operations involving currency movement carry out “detailed planning visualising extreme situations and readying solutions”.
Most unlikely, going by the available information. The most shocking element in this ridiculous heist is that the consignee bank in Salem railway station had declared it as 'low value consignment'. “Had they stated that it was a high-value consignment, the railways would have provided higher security”, said Mr Anil Saxena, chief PRO, Indian Railways, at New Delhi.

Perhaps this 'low-value' mindset dictated the conduct of the entire operation by the banks and the railways — neither agency realising the truth that though they were soiled currency notes, they remained valid tender. The Rs 342.7 crore of soiled currency notes were Rs 342.7 crore of money, period.

And look at the manner in which the transportation was done and the wagon was left in the Chetpet yard for hours before the RBI officials opened the seal of the wagon to discover the hole in the roof and some of the money gone! On Tuesday morning, the Salem Express, linked with this cash-filled wagon, arrived at Egmore station just after 4 am and later, the parcel van containing cash was shunted off to the railway yard in Chetpet, where it remained for over three hours, almost not cared for and hardly guarded. “The whole thing is a serious security breach”, said former DGP R Nataraj. “There should have been armed guards in position until the entire consignment was handed over at the receiving end. The wagon was in the yard for good five hours during which time the robbery could have taken place. Also, when such high-value sensitive cargo is moved, the operation is continuously monitored on wireless. Why was this not done?” he wondered.

He pointed out that the thieves took their own time cutting open the roof. While they could get away with the booty using just 'primitive’ tools like axe and hammer, the railways with its webcast network of CCTV cameras and armed guards, slept through the heist.

(With inputs from E.T.B. Sivapriyan and Shruti Suresh)