Salem: In a startling development past Friday midnight, six passengers of six different trains were robbed of their gold chains valued at over 30 sovereigns, with miscreants brazenly displaying their handiwork at a particular stretch between Salem and Erode, all within a few hours in the dark night.
Police said as a railway bridge construction work is in progress near Mavelipalayam near Salem, all trains passing through Erode from here have been advised to move at 20-kmph speed on that stretch during the last two days.
Taking advantage of trains slowing down in that particular stretch, miscreants first struck at the Mayiladuthurai-Mysuru express in which a woman passenger from Tiruvarur, Vinodhini, was relieved of her five sovereigns gold chain. Another passenger bound for Karnataka, Ambika, also lost her two sovereigns gold chain before the robbers got down from the slowly moving train, sources said.
After a short gap, the Kovai-Chennai Cheran Express was targeted in which a passenger from Coimbatore, Ms. Vimala, lost her gold chain worth 6.5 sovereigns. Next in turn was the Alapuzha-Chennai express in which a Chennai-bound passenger Arun Krishnan lost his gold chain worth 2.50 sovereigns, police said.
In the fourth heist, miscreants got away with five sovereigns of gold chain of another Kerala passenger Shyamala Begum travelling by the Mangaluru-Chennai express train, sources said. All these passengers in the above mentioned four train robberies got down at Salem station and gave a complaint to the railway police. Following these, two other passengers travelling by two other trains that traversed that stretch - Kochiveli-Kachchiguda express and Kovai-Chennai express-, also lost their valuable gold chains each worth four sovereigns; one of them complained at Bengaluru railway station and the other at Chennai Central on Saturday morning. Shocked at the series of daring train heists, all within a few hours late last night, the Railways SP, Sri Rohitnathan Rajagopal rushed to the spot and held a detailed investigation today. The railway police is also investigating a possible angle that the miscreants could be from North India.
