CHENNAI: Life imitates art! Not necessarily with regard to fashions and trends alone but in daredevilry as well. A little known but critically appreciated action-comedy of ace filmmaker Mani Ratnam would stand proof for the words of Oscar Wide. The striking parallel that the 1993 Tamil movie Thiruda Thiruda has with the loot of `5.78 core cash in last weeks’s daring great Indian train robbery is unmistakeable.
Nearly a week had passed and the Tamil Nadu cops are still grovelling in the dark to get a clue about the sensational robbery.
Now, the investigation has been handed over to the CB-CID of the TN police considering the complexity of the case. Last week, the CB-CID top brass visited the coach, still parked at the Egmore station yard, to get first-hand information about the modus operandi. Welding experts too were requisitioned to assist them.
In the daring attempt, dacoits managed to gain entry into a coach in a moving train, carrying soiled currency notes to the tune of `342 crore from Salem, a western city in Tamil Nadu, to Chennai, and made off with `5.78 crore. The thieves made a hole, enough to gain entry for a person, on the roof of the coach with a machine cutter.
The sensational heist came to light only after the Salem Express reached Chennai around 3.55 am last week. When RBI officials opened the coach, they were ion for a shock. Out of the 226 boxes containing currencies, four were found broken with cash in one of them entirely missing. Another was half-empty and the third had been opened, but cash was just left scattered. This might have been because the cash in the last box was of smaller denomination.
Director General of RPF SK Bhagat has already inspected the Goods Yard at Salem Railway Junction. “We have to find out when and where the crime happened. Once the spot is fixed, it will only be a matter of time before the culprits are arrested,” he said. Investigating officers have compiled a shortlist of 30 people who will be interrogated in more detail to crack the robbery. A senior police official said initially, 60 people—including employees of the private parcel company—were interrogated. Following this, the list was narrowed down to 30 people, some of whom are railway employees. Police suspect that a robbery of such precision could not have been executed without the hand of insiders, sources added.