BENGALURU: In a shocking incident that exposed the lack of safety of passengers inside trains, an unknown individual managed to steal the luggage of a top woman railway officer of the Bengaluru Division and her co-passenger on board the Rani Chennamma Express recently. They were travelling in a cabin of the AC first class compartment. Sources stated that the stolen luggage of the Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM), Kusuma Hariprasad, contained department files as well.
They had boarded the train from KSR Bengaluru on January 24 at 11pm and their seats were in a cabin with four berths in H1 coach. It was when they were about to alight at Hubballi the next day at 5.20 am, that they realised their belongings were missing.
Two separate FIRs have been filed at the Government Railway Police (GRP) station at Hubballi under section 379 of IPC (Punishment for theft).
Speaking to TNIE, a GRP source said, “Strangely the belongings of only two of the four passengers were stolen. The ADRM’s Allen Solly trolley suitcase which contained railway files have been stolen. In addition, her Hidesign handbag and gold earrings weighing 4 grams were stolen too”
The only other passenger whose belongings were stolen was that of Rajesh Kumar, a sound contractor with the Railways. ‘He lost his Louis Vuitton bag which had a laptop worth Rs 60,000,” he added.
The bag of another passenger in the coach, Lalitha Ramagopal, wife of a Railway Construction official was missing but she found it later in the train’s washroom. “Only her charger was stolen and she did not want to file a complaint,” the source said. Moreover, passenger Vinay Dias had all his belongings intact.
Inquiry into the theft
When inquired about the progress made in the case, another cop said that CCTV cameras were spread across the stations and inside Rani Chennamma but were not fixed inside the cabin. “As of now, we have found out that no one boarded the train that night after Davanagere station. Somebody on board the train or someone who boarded before the station has committed the theft. Investigations are on,” he said.
The train had armed Railway Protection Force cops until it covered the Bengaluru Division as well as GRP cops on board. Neither the ADRM nor the General Manager of SWR Sanjeev Kishore answered calls in this connection.
Chief Public Relations Officer, SWR, Manjunath Prasad said, “A search is on to identify the culprit. We expect the person to be caught shortly.”