Employing a new modus operandi, robbers took on passengers on the Chennai-Hyderabad and Chennai-Howrah express trains in the wee hours of Thursday while making an vain bid on the Tirupati-Visakhapatnam express as well.
They snatched a gold chain weighing 25 gm from a woman passenger on the Chennai-Hyderabad train and vanished into the night before Government Railway Police personnel opened two rounds of fire in the air to deter them.
“The offenders also struck on the Chennai-Howrah express, relieving another woman passenger of her gold chain weighing 24 gm after pulling the alarm chain,” GRP DSP S.M. Ramesh Babu said.
They also made a vain bid to rob passengers on the Tirupati-Visakhapatnam express, he added.
The officer said the robbers stopped the train by placing a few one-rupee coins at the spot where two tracks join. This makes the automatic traffic signalling system flash red, thereby signalling to the train driver to stop.
The Chennai-Hyderabad robbery is said to have taken place between Surareddypalem and Tangutur in Prakasam district. When passengers screamed for help, GRP personnel got down from the train and opened fire in the air, but the offenders made good their escape.
GRP personnel fire in the air as offenders make away with passengers’ jewellery
