KOCHI: A special squad of Railway Police Force (RPF), Ernakulam, on Thursday arrested five persons for stealing the railways’ property from its Kathrikadavu yard.Thammanam natives Razak, 48, Nazar K K, 48, Salam T K, 33, and Jamal, 42, besides Dhanesh, 46, of Paravoor, were arrested for stealing CST-9 plates, used to fix railway tracks.
“While the others stole the CST-9 plates on different dates, Jamal, who runs a scrap shop near Palakkamugal Masjid at Kalamassery, and his friend Hassanaar bought the stolen items. Hassanaar, an accused in a similar case, is absconding. The goods vehicle they used to transport the stolen plates has been seized,” said T S Gopakumar, assistant commissioner, RPF, Ernakulam.
He said based on the information provided by the accused during interrogation, RPF officials searched Jamal’s scrap shop and seized `1.98 lakh he earned by selling the plates. The accused were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Ernakulam, which remanded them in 14-day judicial custody, Gopakumar said. The probe had been launched based on a complaint lodged by a senior section engineer of the railways earlier this month saying 451 CST-9 plates were stolen from the yard.