Maharashtra tops again in train robberies

MUMBAI: For a second consecutive year, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of robberies and thefts on board trains in the country. As many as 688 robberies and

MUMBAI: For a second consecutive year, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of robberies and thefts on board trains in the country. As many as 688 robberies and 5,882 thefts were registered in 2015 by the Government Railway Police (GRP), revealed statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). There were 1,479 robberies and 29,686 thefts on board trains across the country last year, according to the NCRB.

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Maharashtra also saw the highest number of kidnappings and abductions last year with 47 such cases, according to the NCRB data.

The security in trains has been dismal with unhindered access for hawkers and other suspicious people, said GRP officials. The GRP conducted several drives last year after Maharashtra registered 709 robberies in 2014, however, while the incidents fell in 2015, the state continues to be number one.

Uttar Pradesh stood second with 264 robberies and Madhya Pradesh stood third with 144 cases, Delhi fourth with 102 and Karnataka registering 79 robberies last year.

Thefts on board trains also rose to a whopping 5,882 cases in Maharashtra, again the highest, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 5,712 cases and Madhya Pradesh registering 3,685 thefts, in 2015. Railway police officials said the number has gone up also because of commuters reporting all the incidents to the police.

“We have filled several vacancies in the GRP across the state and are taking all steps with the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to get to the root of these cases. Almost all railway stations Maharashtra do not have CCTV cameras, which would act as a deterrent as police could easily spot suspicious person(s),” said a senior police officer.

Another crime where the state topped in 2014 is kidnappings and abduction, of which 270 cases were registered across the country. Maharashtra reported 47 of these cases, followed by Delhi with 40 incidents. The third place was occupied by Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with 36 cases each, whereas West Bengal registered 26 and Madhya Pradesh 24 cases.

The officials said the number of cases had risen as the police was following Bombay high court orders, according to which an abduction case has to be registered if a juvenile goes missing. Officials claimed that the number of actual kidnappings was far less.