BHOPAL: Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested seven members of an inter-state gang of robbers accused of being involved in the incident of throwing the wife of a CRPF constable off a speeding train near Itarsi on April 7. The victim lost one of her legs in the incident and is currently undergoing treatment at Hamidia Hospital.
Guneshwari Devi, 27, a resident of Bastar district of Chhattisgarh was traveling to Delhi in Samta Express train with her brother and 1-year-old daughter to see her husband. In the wee hours of April 7, she was thrown off the running train allegedly by two robbers after she protested against them for trying to run away with her handbag. The doctors during treatment amputated one of her legs to avoid the infection from spreading in her body.
On Thursday, superintendent of police, GRP, TK Vidyarthi held a press conference and announced the arrest of seven of the nine-member inter-state gang of robbers involved in the incident.
“On April 19, the police got a tip-off that a gang of about nine people were gathered in Itarsi and planning to commit robbery in a train. Based on the input, the police rounded them up and nabbed them from their hideout. Two of the accused managed to flee by taking advantage of the darkness. The arrested accused comprised men from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and MP. The leader of the gang has been identified as Vikram Namdeo, 20, of Chitrakoot district, Uttar Pradesh,” said Vidyarthi adding the accused confessed to be involved in 12 other such incidents including the one involving Guneshwari Devi.
Speaking to media persons he also said the police while arresting the accused had also seized some weapons from them including a country-made pistol, four daggers, a chain cutter and a screw-driver.
“The inter-state gang during the interrogation said they made three bases across India to operate — in Mumbai, Jabalpur and Manikpur in UP. They used to mainly target female passengers during night. In Jabalpur they used to plan their robberies in a rented accommodation of one of their arrested gang members and decided which train to board to commit the robbery. In the recent case in Itarsi, the police recovered the valuables of Guneshwari from them including her stolen bag, jewellery and her identity documents. All the accused after being booked under relevant sections of IPC are under police remand and would soon be presented before the court. Investigations are on to nab the absconding accused,” added Vidyarthi.
