Nine Bihar-bound train passengers drugged, robbed

Patna, Oct 1 (UNI) Nine Patna-bound passengers, travelling in two express trains from New Delhi, were found heavily drugged and robbed of their belongings on their arrival here today, Railway police said.

The victims, believed to be daily wage labourers in New Delhi, were retuning to their native villages in Jehanabad and Sitamarhi districts of south Bihar before the Navaratri and Durga Puja festivals by the Delhi-Patna Sampoornakranti Express and Delhi-Patna Jansadharan express when they were befrinded by a gang of cheats yesterday.

Soon the victims in both the trains were believed to be offered tea mixed with intoxicants by the group and after drinking the tea in good faith, all the nine, four in Sampoornakranti and five in Jansadharan express, soon fell asleep before becoming unconscious under the influence of the drug.

The miscreants, as a part of their modus-operendi, alighted from the train at a suitable spot stealing the entire cash, valuables and other belongings from the hapless victims.

The incident, however, came to the notice of the railway police after the trains reached Danapur. Soon all of them were admitted to the Danapur Railway Hospital near here as they were yet to regain consciousness, the police said.

Incidentally, the incidents of drugging of innocent passengers and looting their belongings in long distance trains were on the rise in Bihar prior to the festive season every year, causing serious concern to the Railway Authorities.

But several public awarness campaigns and advise to passengers, not to accept anything from strangers and other co-passengers during the journey, seemed to have fallen into deaf ears so far as such cases continued unabated for the past several years.

During the past few weeks, more than 25 people, mostly poor and daily wage labourers returning from Delhi, were targeted by these professional groups and drugged before being robbed of their entire belongings.

Though there was every possibility, as had happened before, none of the victims had lost their lives so far this year, despite being heavily drugged, the sources added.

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