Couple involved in 500 thefts at Madhya Pradesh railway stations arrested

The couple used to target train passengers going to Bihar and Jharkhand in the past four years, but were never caught.

The government railway police (GRP) on Sunday said they had arrested a couple who have confessed to committing more than 500 thefts and frauds, mainly targeting train passengers going to Bihar and Jharkhand,in the past four years, but were never caught.

Explaining their methods, GRP said the man used to befriend another passenger at the Jabalpur railway station, while the woman, pretending to be another passenger, would come up to them and request them to get her a ticket. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Jabalpur GRP station in-charge YP Mishra said the couple, identified as Manoj Gupta, 35, a resident of Bihar’s Aurangabad district and his wife Pooja, were arrested from their rented accommodation at Kripal Chowk in Jabalpur on Saturday night on a tip-off.

Explaining their methods, he said that Gupta, posing as a train passenger, used to befriend another passenger going to Bihar or Jharkhand at Jabalpur railway station, while Pooja, pretending to be another passenger, would come up to them and request them to get her a ticket. “When the two men, including her husband, went to the booking window leaving their belongings with the woman, she would disappear with the stuff and later meet Gupta at their house.”

The police officer said that they were verifying the confessions of the couple by going through the FIRs lodged with GRP station and other police stations in the last four years and earlier, adding that it was also possible that many victims didn’t lodge cases. A police team would be sent to Aurangabad to gather details about the man’s second family and his criminal records, if any.

Mishra said the couple had other methos which they employed in per different situations to target people.