PATNA, Oct 16: The passengers of Delhi-Howrah Duronto Express were looted by
robbers at gunpoint shortly after it left Patna station in the wee hours of
Sunday. Seven bogies of the superfast train were looted.
The incident occurred a few minutes after the train 12274 left Patna railway
station when someone pulled the emergency chain and the train stopped. When
the train stopped, about 20 robbers climbed the bogies and a lot of commotion
ensued. The robbers decamped with the belongings of the passengers.
It is reported that there were no Railway Protection Force or Government Railway
Police (GRP) personnel on board.
As the incident happened at a place that falls under Bihar’s Danapur division,
the complaints have been forwarded there for further action, the GRP in Howrah
said.
Passengers said that the incident occurred around 3 am on Sunday. The driver
claimed that someone had pulled the emergency chain to halt the train for the
robbers to board. The passengers made the complaint after reaching Howrah.
“Around 10 km after the train had left Patna, there was a sudden commotion
and I saw people running around. The train stopped soon after and several people
from outside got onto some of the bogies. They snatched the belongings of several
passengers,” a businessman from Kolkata, who was on the train, told Firstpost.
The witness said the GRP personnel, before getting down from the train at Patna
station before the robbery took place, asked the passengers to “hide away their
mobile phones and chargers”.
Another robbery had taken place in the Duronto Express a month ago.
