This story is from October 4, 2017

Thief targeting Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhanis nabbed in Ratlam

At first glance, he appeared to be a regular passenger on Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhanis with wife and kids in tow. But 41-year-old Kulbir aka Happy Singh had other plans.The Amritsar native stole valuables worth Rs 4.3 lakh from 17 passengers on three Rajdhani trains in August alone.
Thief targeting Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhanis nabbed in Ratlam
Representative image.
MUMBAI: At first glance, he appeared to be a regular passenger on Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhanis with wife and kids in tow. But 41-year-old Kulbir aka Happy Singh had other plans.The Amritsar native stole valuables worth Rs 4.3 lakh from 17 passengers on three Rajdhani trains in August alone. He would have remained elusive but for some smart thinking by Railway Protection Force.
On August 15, at least 10 passengers on the August Kranti Rajdhani complained their money , cellphones and jewellery collectively worth Rs 3 lakh was stolen at Ratlam.
Another three passengers were looted on August 9 in a different Rajdhani and four others were targeted on August 29. “Rajdhani is a premium train and guarantees a safe journey for commuters. The spate of thefts left commuters shaken. Our personnel started looking up reservation charts of all these trains. It was found one passenger (Singh) was common to all,“ said assistant security commissioner, Jabalpur, Prashant Sansare.
Further sleuthing took the RPF to a booking agent in Delhi. “The agent told us Singh was booking return tickets in bulk for multiple trains, sometimes with his wife. He similarly booked tickets in bulk in mid-2016. On examining the trips in August this year, we found a trend. Singh would board a train from New Delhi for Surat or Kota, get off there and in half an hour, board a Rajdhani for Delhi. Passengers normally spend at least a day at a new destination and don't leave so soon,“ said inspector Rajiv Kharb, Kota RPF .
The RPF then traced Singh's home to Amritsar where they met his father, Manjeet, a businessman. He told investigators that Singh has been booked in cases of theft and was involved in criminal activities for four to five years. Manjeet said his son was involved in a vehicle theft.In 2016, Singh and two other associates were also booked in a cheating case by Maqboolpur police in Punjab.
“Singh has been married twice and has a child from his first marriage. His second wife used to be a bar girl and has a child from her previous marriage,“ said an official. As Singh couldn't be found in Amritsar, the RPF and Ratlam railway police started tracking his phone. “Singh would commit thefts on one sector of the railways till security agencies got wind of his activities and he would move to another sector.His location kept shifting to different parts of the country .On October 1, he was finally caught in Ratlam,“ said Kharb.
Singh's modus operandi involved doing a recce in Rajdhanis after boarding. He would look for women and senior citizens occupying lower berths and carrying expensive bags.
A court has remanded him to 10 days in police custody .A police team has taken Singh to Amritsar to recover the stolen valuables from him.
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About the Author
Nitasha Natu

Nitasha Natu is a Senior Assistant Editor with the Times of India and writes on gender, human rights, road safety and law enforcement. She has received the Laadli Media & Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2021. She tweets @nnatuTOI

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