Village gossip led to quick arrests of accused in Pushpak Express train dacoity and sexual assault case

An investigating officer says that the village, Ghoti, has its own gossip about all of its residents; accused Sheikh and his friends were allegedly infamous as drug addicts and good-for-nothings and several villagers identified his co-accused in the train dacoity and sexual assault case

A village gossip played a significant role in facilitating the arrest of the eight accused in the Pushpak Express dacoity and sexual assault case within 48 hours of the case being registered, investigating officers said on Monday.

The accused in the dacoity and sexual assault case allegedly boarded the Lucknow-Mumbai Express train just after it left Igatpuri, robbed around 15 passengers and sexually assaulted a 20-year-old woman in front of her husband. (HT FILE)

The accused had allegedly boarded the Lucknow-Mumbai Express train just after it left Igatpuri on the night of October 8, robbed around 15 passengers in one of the sleeper coaches and sexually assaulted a 20-year-old woman in front of her husband. Seven of them managed to flee after the train reached Kasara while one was caught by Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel who responded to the passengers’ cries for help.

Officers who were part of the investigation said that the first arrested accused, Arshan Sheikh (20), did not give any significant clues during his preliminary questioning. Further, the police did not have the option of interrogating him at length as the priority was to arrest the rest of the accused before they fled.

“We made inquiries with the passengers but they had only heard the accused address each other by their nicknames like ‘Kalya’ and ‘Pakya’, which gave us no clues as to their identities. Our teams obtained Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera footage from the spot where they boarded the train, as well as from Kasara, where they alighted and fled. The footage was scanned till we had decently clear images of their faces,” an officer who is part of the investigation said.

Armed with these stills, a joint team from the Kalyan GRP and the GRP’s Local Crime Branch (LCB) went to the Ghoti village in Nashik, where Sheikh hails from. With the help of the Nashik Rural Police, under whose jurisdiction the village falls, the police began going door to door in Sheikh’s locality, showing his picture to all the residents.

“Like any village, Ghoti has its own gossip about all of its residents. Sheikh and his friends were allegedly infamous as drug addicts and good-for-nothings. Several of the villagers identified his co-accused for us, telling us their addresses as well as confirming the fact that all of them were often seen together,” the officer said.

Using this information, the police fanned out in the village and started picking up the accused, with the Nashik Rural Police providing ground level intelligence. Sources said that one of them was hiding in the forest area near Ghoti, from where he was picked up on Sunday afternoon.

“The Nashik Rural Police played a huge role in making the arrests possible,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, Manoj Patil, Central Railway, said. The joint team of Kalyan GRP and LCB personnel was working under Patil’s direct supervision.

He added that after thorough inquiries, the investigating team has concluded that there were no more accused involved in the case other than the eight already arrested.

“We are now working on building a watertight case by recording statements from eye witnesses as well as gathering corroborative evidence,” Patil said.