A dacoit gang robbed the passengers of Hyderabad bound Chennai Express, near Piduguralla railway station in the early hours of Tuesday. They escaped with gold ornaments and other valuables, valued about Rs.5 lakh.
The robbers, who travelled in the train, pulled chain as the train crossed Piduguralla railway station, around 2.18 a.m. The assailants snatched gold chains, and wallets from the passengers who were sitting at the windows and fled, Superintendent of Railway Police, Vijayawada Division, Ch. Syam Prasad said.
“They stopped the train on Pidiguralla outskirts. We suspect that there were more than eight dacoits. They struck on S-5, S-7, 9, 11 and 12 sleeper class bogies. Police recovered a ‘nalla pusala golusu’ from the spot, where the train was stopped. The gang targetted women passengers mostly”, said the Railway SP, who inspected the spot.
Hyderabad Bureau adds:
The Railway Police suspect that's an unidentified passenger travelling in coach no S-11 could have pulled the chain and later disappeared after allowing the robbers to get in. Among the passengers who lost their valuables included B.Shivani of Allwyn Colony nears Miyapur (S-1, 65 berth number) who lost an eight gram chain and Rs.8,000 cash, Anushka (S-9, four) working in Mahendra Satyam lost 32 grams of gold chain. she hails from Tamil Nadu.
Fatima (S-12, 52) a resident of Warasiguda here lost a gold chain weighing 15 grams. Varna Priyanka of KPHB Colony was robbed of her Sony Ericsson cell phone, iPad and a camera in addition to Rs.1,000 in cash. T. Vankatachalam of Chandanagar (S-11) was robbed of his chain weighing 24 grams. Other victims included Durga Lakshmi of Warangal (S-7), Gowri hailing from Nellore.
The train started for Hyderabad again 3.08 am after an hour's delay.
