The next time you travel by train, make sure you keep the windows closed while sleeping.
A gang stole gold chains weighing a total of 15 sovereigns from three women passengers travelling on Bangalore Mail after pulling the chain near Jolarpet railway station.
While two of the women, K. Priya (57) and Sudha (48), were sleeping on lower berths in the S12 compartment, the third one, Roslin Mary, was in S5 when the incident happened.
The Government Railway Police have registered a case.
Recalling the shocking experience, S. Murali, whose wife Priya lost her eight-sovereign chain, said: “We boarded the train from Bengaluru around 10.40 p.m. on Sunday, and in two hours, reached close to Jolarpet.”
His wife had left the window partially open to allow some ventilation, he said. “Around 12.45 a.m. on Monday, the train slowed down. My wife got up to check the time and someone snatched her gold mangalsutra from outside, and fled. Around the same time, another member of the same gang snatched the chain of another woman passenger in the same compartment in a similar manner,” he said.
When Murali tried to get down from the train, some of the gang members started pelting stones at him in the dark. “They were hanging on to the window to snatch the chain. I saw one man running away, but other passengers said there was another man too,” he said.
Roslin, a nurse who works in Chennai, had a similar experience. She said she was headed to Katpadi from Bengaluru. “I lost my three-sovereign chain,” she said.
According to the police, the chain-snatching gang usually strikes on the day of the new moon. “It’ll be pitch dark and that will make it difficult for passengers to spot them. Usually, one gang member conducts a recce to identify easy targets. They then pass on the information to other gang members and at a pre-planned spot, they pull the chain and bring the train to a halt, before robbing passengers,” said an officer.
According to the police, the chain-snatching gang usually strikes during new moon day, when it is pitch dark
