DHARMAPURI: Passengers of New Delhi-bound Kerala Express were robbed of their belongings by a gang, which tampered with the axle counter train circuit junction box near R S Thoddampatti Railway Station in Morappur in the early hours of Monday.
When the train came to a halt, the gang snatched away jewellery weighing around 16 sovereigns from at least four women passengers through the window, police sources said.
Kerala Express (train no 12625), which began its journey from Thiruvananthapuram, was on the Morappur-Jolarpettai route when the incident happened around 1 am.
The gang had tampered with the train circuit junction box near Ponnagoundampatti, leading to the halting of the train. “They damaged the wires of the axle counter (no.295/5). The axle counter detects the passing of a train between two points on a track and is important in railway signalling,” said a railway official.
As the train came to a halt, the gang targeted passengers sleeping by the window side and robbed at least four women of their gold chains and a man of his mobile phone. “The passengers robbed were from the coaches S3, S4, S6 and S8,” a police official said.
Railway police were alerted and a case was registered. Inquiries were conducted with the victims. Later in the day, Superintendent of Police (SP) Bandi Gangadhar, Railways SP P Vijayakumar along with other police personnel inspected the scene and conducted investigations.