BENGALURU: Despite countless such incidents taking place in the past, 11 gullible male passengers, all aged between 22 and 50, fell victims to sedative-laced biscuits and cool drinks offered by strangers on board the Yesvantpur-Lucknow Express on Wednesday. They lost not only their consciousness but their belongings too — a laptop, six mobiles, Rs 15,000 in cash and their baggage. The lost items are yet to be valued but estimated to be under R1 lakh. All the victims were from Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) and Raipur (Chhattisgarh).
The incident took place around noon in the general compartment of the train number 12539, despite the Railway Protection Force (RPF) men cautioning all passengers not to trust strangers just before departure.
A senior RPF official said the incident happened within 30 minutes of the train’s departure from Yesvantpur at 10.55 am. “As the train was heading towards KR Puram, two strangers befriended them by speaking Hindi, saying they were celebrating the birthday of the daughter of one of them and offered biscuits and cool drinks. All the 11 became drowsy and fell unconscious,” he said.
The RPF control room at Renigunta got an alert from a co-passenger around 5.45 pm as the train neared Gudur Junction (AP) that some people were lying unconscious inside the compartment. The train made an unscheduled stop at Gudur, where RPF men revived the unconscious men and admitted them in Gudur government hospital.