Government railway police (GRP) have arrested a man who relieved a woman of her valuables worth Rs 12 lakh on Balsad Puri express on March 15. The accused was arrested in Bihar and all valuables, including cash, mobile phone and gold jewellery was recovered from his possession.
Additional director general (ADG) rail Aruna Mohan Rao, told media on Tuesday said Tanuja Ropare was travelling in the AC coach of the train with her husband Deepak Ropare, a retired doctor in the Indian Army. The couple had boarded the train from Vadodara and was heading to Bhuvneshwar. The theft occurred near Ujjain.
As the couple did not get berths in same coach, the two were travelling in separate bogies. The thief targeted Tanuja while she was sleeping and made away with her handbag carrying mobile phone, gold jewellery and cash. Rao said when Tanuja woke up she realised that her handbag was missing. The couple deboarded the train at Ujjain station and lodged a complaint with GRP, Ujjain. Her husband, Deepak Ropare had even tweeted the whole incident to railway minister.
During investigation, police team scanned CCTV camera footage and also went through the reservation charts however they could not get any clue of the culprit. Since the thief had stolen woman mobile, the cops put the number on location tracker; and soon they traced it to Bihar. Based on further inputs, a team reached Adamkuan area of Bihar and held Raju Mistri.
The accused confessed to have stolen the woman’s valuables on a moving train. Fearing that he might be caught, the accused had buried a few of the ornaments near Friganj bridge in Ujjain and had placed a big boulder over it to identify the spot. Police have recovered stolen cash, ornaments, mobile worth Rs 11.92 lakh. Further questioning of the accused is on.
