VIJAYAWADA: In the wake of the attack carried out a 70-year-old woman by unidentified blade-batch members, railway police has reportedly arrested 30 suspects on Thursday.
A day after the incident created stir over the safety of passengers in and near the railway station, both government railway police (GRP) and railway protection force (RPF) officers joined forces to combat the menace of these unorganized groups.
Six teams including both the RPF and GRP officers were created who carried out a sudden inspection drive at platforms eight and nine, taking as many as 30 people into their custody on Thursday night.
GRP circle inspector Ratna Raju said that of the total detained, most have been offenders in the past and have some or the other link with the notorious blade batch gang.
“We have placed special force teams at all the identified problematic locations in and around Vijayawada railway station. With many such unidentified and notorious gangs operating in the guise of common public and passengers, it has become a herculean task to identify them,” he said. “We are verifying the fingerprints of the suspected with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) and Aadhar cards for identification,” Ratna Raju added.
The GRP circle inspector, who is investigating the assault case, said that the sanitation workers cleaning the platform found the woman bleeding with injuries and walking naked towards the control room on platform eight around 11 pm.
During the course of investigation, GRP officials arrested six suspects among which the role of one was found to be affirmative. In the investigation, he also found that three members of a blade-batch gang attacked the woman when she failed to give them money.
Under the influence of alcohol and ganja, the accused sexually assaulted her and fled the scene after seeing sanitation workers approach them.
“The victim was coming towards platform eight from the backyard of the flower market via the ‘low bridge’. Noticing the woman walking alone, the accused attacked her and threatened to kill her when she refused to give them money. The accused will be arrested soon,” said the CI.