Police in train of thieves reach Kochi

Kochi: A Tamil Nadu Crime Branch team verified CCTV footage and collected telephone call records of railway officials here as part of expanding probe into the Rs 5.75 crore parcel van heist on the Salem-Chennai Express last week, but nothing concrete emerged. The team of nearly ten officers arrived at the Ernakulam South railway station on Sunday and engaged in the investigation process for the next two days after it turned out that the coach of Salem-Chennai Express which robbers struck on August 9 was last subjected to annual maintenance inspection at the Ernakulam Marshalling yard.

“Cutting open the roof of a coach, that too in the night on a running train, is not possible without preplanning or the help of insiders," a senior RPF officer said. "The team visited the Marshalling yard where the coach was last inspected and collected its fitness certificates. It also checked the CCTV images of the coach being shunted at the South railway station and verified phone calls made during this period. However, the team got no breakthrough.”

The robbers entered the coach where the boxes containing the old currency notes belonging to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) were kept by cutting open its roof and decamped with the cash. Two days before the theft, the coach was on the Tea Garden Express to Tamil Nadu from Ernakulam South Jn. It was redeployed from Salem as the parcel van on the Salem-Chennai Express for transporting the foiled notes. The last annual rake maintenance was held at the Ernakulam Marshalling yard.