An anonymous call received by the police about movement of Maoists from the North-East to Kerala, kept the Railway Police and their counterparts in western region of the State on their toes on Friday.
Passengers travelling in trains heading to Kerala were frisked at Erode and Coimbatore Junctions by the police.
According to the caller, five persons, suspected to be Maoists, were travelling to Kerala with 30 other persons from Odisha. At Erode, the police conducted search in the Shalimar-Nagercoil Gurudev Express, Tatabad-Alapuzha Bokaro Express, and Kovai Inter-City Express, under the supervision of Superintendent of Police M.R. Sibi Chakravarthy.
A Calcutta-based labourer, who was travelling in Gurudev Express, was detained for questioning on suspicion, and let off later.
Over 100 personnel were involved in the search operation. Sniffer dogs were also engaged.
The three trains were stopped for durations ranging between half an hour and one hour at the junctions.
At Coimbatore Junction, security was tightened from 10.30am to 2.30pm.
The Coimbatore City Police, Railway Police, Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and sniffers dogs were pressed for duty and about 2,500 passengers were checked.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) of the city police Pravesh Kumar led the team of over 70 personnel comprising two Assistant Commissioners for conducting the checks.
The personnel checked the Gurudev Express, Chennai-Alappuzha Super Fast Express and the Chennai-Coimbatore Kovai Express. Five persons — three from Kerala and one each from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — were questioned by the police s and later let off.
A senior police official said that efforts were on trace the caller to verify the information he provided.
