KOCHI: Railway Protection Force (RPF) has spruced up security arrangements and has asked passengers to be more alert to drugging incidents in trains.
According to the railway officials, in the past, such incidents rarely happened at Kerala railway stations. However, two incidents of drugging in a row in two months time can suggest the involvement of a strong mafia within and outside the state.
RPF Commissioner from Thiruvananthapuram K J Jay said, “We are doing our best to track the people who are responsible for such acts. However, we also realise that there is a strong mafia working behind this.” Jay added, “It is usually in the night that the passengers have to be careful.
The mafia knows the time when these people open their food packets to have dinner.
Also, they know that most of those who travel from the North, usually come with a lot of valuables and money.” In the last week’s incident, at least `76,000 worth of valuables were stolen from the two passengers travelling in the Mangala Express.
The RPF officials at the Ernakulam Junction station, who registered the case said, “According to the statement given by the victims Saji Alex and Monachan George, a North Indian couple, travelling with their seven-year old son, offered them dates when they reached Salem.
The victims also said that they remember that the dates were purchased by the family from Tirupati.” However, the railway officials have a different take on this issue.
“They might have already had the drugged dates with them. They could have simply claimed to have purchased it from a shop in Tirupati.” A month ago, a retired colonel fell victim to the ploy.
The colonel who was travelling from Pune to attend a wedding in his native town in Kerala, was drugged when he reached Salem. He was given some food by two men who entered the train in Sholapur.
The next thing he remember is that he was admitted at an hospital in Kanyakumari.
The RPF officials said that in most of the cases, that the drugged person was someone who always warned his co-passengers about taking food offered by the others on the train.
The RPF is planning an awareness campaign by staging dramas to address this issue to the passengers at the stations.
A RPF official at Ernakulam Junction station said, “Until now, we have been addressing the issue through banners, pamphlets and recordings in the trains.
Video clips were shown on the televisions set at the platforms.
However, now we realise that the message has to be conveyed much strongly than this.”
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