Vijayawada: A fresh robbery attempt aboard a moving train in Andhra Pradesh’s Bapatla district has once again raised concerns over passenger safety on trains passing through the region. This is the third such incident reported within a 20-km stretch in just two months, raising questions about railway security in the Bapatla region.
In a dramatic incident shortly after midnight on Monday, suspected robbers targeted sleeping passengers on the Circar Express. As panicked passengers woke up and raised an alarm, one of the gang members pulled the emergency chain. As the train came to a halt, the robbers jumped out and fled into nearby agricultural fields.
The incident occurred around 1am near Nallamada railway bridge, between Bapatla and Appikatla stations. The Circar Express was travelling from Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu to Kakinada when the gang of robbers entered the sleeper coaches and attempted to snatch jewellery and other valuables from the passengers.
The miscreants mainly targeted women passengers in S-3 and S-6 coaches. Two women reportedly lost gold ornaments weighing around seven sovereigns during the robbery. DSP A Keswara Rao said police suspect that a gang of around nine was involved in the offence.
As the robbers jumped out and fled, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel escorting the train chased them and fired nine rounds in a bid to catch them. However, the gang members escaped. Large-scale search operations were later launched in the fields around Appikatla and Battipudi villages. District SP Uma Maheswara Rao alerted local police teams and deployed special squads to track down the culprits.
The latest incident is the third train-related robbery attempt in the region in the last two months. On April 19, a gang robbed around 130 grams of gold jewellery from sleeping passengers on board the Bengaluru-Narsapur Weekly Express near Appikatla. Three weeks ago, another gang tampered with railway signalling equipment near Nidubrolu in an alleged attempt to commit theft.
Police said efforts to identify and arrest the suspects are underway.
