Railway police have recovered about 1.5 tonnes of copper wire that was robbed by a gang of over 10 dacoits at Chandil railway station that falls under Adra division of the railway on February 12. The railway police have also arrested two dacoits, including the gang leader Mohammed Rafique (32), a resident of Mango.
The other accused arrested was identified as Anand Kumar Singh alias Badshah (30), also a resident of Mango. Superintendent railway police (SRP), Tatanagar, Ehtesham Waquarib said that it is a big achievement for the police. The robbed copper wire and other copper material have been recovered from a tiled house at Saraswatinagar in Fadlugora village under Chandil area today.
"As per our probe the criminals had kept the robbed copper wire hidden in the tiled house with a plan for getting the material melted.
They had planned to sell out the copper to any scrap dealer later on," said Waquarib. He said they will increase security.
The SRP, Tatanagar said that they had earlier arrested four persons involved in the same robbery on February 19 and had recovered a pistol from the possession of one them by carrying out investigation of the robbery jointly by the GRP and railway protection force (RPF), Tatanagar. He said those arrested earlier were Athar Ekbal, Mohammed Firoz, Anoop Chakraborty and Manoj Yadav.
The SRP said as per their understanding the same gang had robbed railway property from Anara station on February 1.
He said the GRP, Anara have been informed about the breakthrough so that they may come and get it verified whether some of the recovered materials had been robbed from there.
An official said that several drives have been taken up to spread awareness and posters have been put up at all major stations, urging passengers too to be vigil.
"In the last few days, several arrests have been made, primarily in the Chakradharpur Division. As per our investigation the gangs used to operate along the Bengal-Jharkhand border as the police had jurisdiction problems. We have already got in touch with security officials GRP to evolve a strategy," a senior RPF official said.
"The criminal had tried to pretext as hawkers and sell drug-laced food items. These are not stray incidents and the gangs continue to operate in a certain area for some time. Unlike other criminals, drug-and-loot gangs have to board trains and befriend victims. This takes some time,” said an official.