Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Sep 5: The Railway Protection Force personnel, on Thursday September 3, succeeded in arresting one of the accused relating to an incident in which cash amounting to Rs 9 lac was stolen from the cash counter at the city central railway station here.
The arrested accused has been identified as Madhusudan alias Sudhakar (39) from Malepatti in Ramji Nagar, Trichy district, Tamil Nadu. When brought to the scene of the crime, he revealed the modus operandi and how he and his accomplices had managed to steal Rs 9 lac in flat 18 seconds.
The police have identified 15 persons as accused in this case. A manhunt is on for nabbing the other thieves. Madhusudan, after being produced in a court here on Friday, was led back to Goa.
On July 19, a gang had entered the central railway station's counter here, and taken away a suitcase containing nine lac rupees. The theft came to light when cash shortage was reported the next day, and an investigation was launched. Although initially suspicion had arisen on the staff manning the counter, no clues were available. Therefore, three persons on duty at the time had made good this shortage personally. The stolen cash is yet to be retrieved from the thieves.
It is gathered that the thieves, after committing theft, had left for different destinations in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, and some other places. The above accused was arrested by Goa police relating to a recent bank robbery case there. After the Goa police passed on this information, Railway Protection Force personnel from here went to Goa, and brought the accused to the city on Thursday.
Four days back, a suitcase containing Rs 12 lac had gone missing from Bank of India's Mapusa branch in Goa. The CCTV footage showed a person lifting out the suitcase from the cash counter. The police had released this photo to the media. During inspection of vehicles, they had taken into custody a passenger of a bus going to Karwar from Goa as hie features matched with the photograph, and upon questioning him, found that he was the man they were looking for. The railway police from the city, who observed this report, found that the photo of the culprit matched with a person captured in CCTV footage of the railway station here. They sought custody of the person through body warrant, and during their interrogation, Madhusudan confessed to his crime, it is gathered.
The accused was led to the railway station here and the modus operandi of the entire theft operation was recreated with his help. Madhusudan said that out of 15 gang members, 14 had stood outside the counter and when the queue moved ahead and they reached the counter, they started some dispute with counter staff and diverted their attention. Making use of this opportunity, Madhusudan had sneaked into the counter, and taken away the suitcase on the table containing cash that was meant to be handed over to the backside counter, within 18 seconds.
Central railway protection force inspector, A P Venu, said that footage of closed circuit television camera has been verified, and all the accused have been identified. The staff have been making efforts to arrest all the others in this case, he added.
It is learnt that Ramji Nagar, a notorious hamlet in Trichy district, is full of nomads, who mostly eke out a living out of thefts. They keep roaming around and changing places. They mostly operate in Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh and rarely in Tamil Nadu. Occasionally they also commit robberies. In 2012, a gang from Ramji Nagar had taken away a cash box containing Rs 25 lac from a ATM van operating in the city, but the gang had been arrested within an hour.