Patna, Jan 5 (IANS): Armed criminals Sunday night looted cash and valuables amounting to lakhs of rupees from train passengers in Bihar's Jamui district, leading to the agitated victims protesting over the railway police personnel's inaction.

This is the second train robbery since last week in Jamui district.

The dacoity took place on the Chapra-Tata Express, near Kiul railway station in Jamui. The Kiul-Jasidih section in Danapur division of East Central Railway (ECR) is considered the worst Maoist-affected area.

"About 20 armed criminals took a cabin man hostage at gun point and forced him to
show the red signal to stop the train. Thereafter, they looted the passengers in four compartments," a railway police official said.

Agitated over the failure of the Government Railway Police's (GRP) escort party deployed on the train to thwart the robbery, hundreds of passengers staged a protest at the district's Jhajha railway station, about 70 km from Kiul station.

A probe has been launched into the actions of the GRP escort party when the criminals looted the passengers.

"We will take action against the escort party if found guilty," Arun Kumar Dubey, a railway police official, said, adding that an FIR has been lodged at the Jhajha police station.

Over a dozen train robberies have been reported in Bihar in the last six months.