Robberies on Bihar trains by armed dacoits continue

Warning: Travelling by train through Bihar is injurious to your life.

It seems Bihar is bent on keeping its “reputation” as the most criminalised state in India. Almost one dozen cases of train robberies have taken place in Bihar in the last two months in which the armed gangs of train robbers killed two passengers and seriously wounded eight others.

A businessman, who witnessed an armed robbery about two years ago in a New Delhi-bound as it was nearing Patna, the capital of Bihar, summed up the situation like this: “I always pray for my safety before I get into a train which passes through Bihar.”

So do thousands of other passengers, especially as the night falls. And, most regular passengers in Bihar-bound trains advise fellow travellers to pray for their safety till the train is out of Bihar.

Each day, over 800 trains pass through Bihar.

An officer of the Railway Police in Bihar was quoted by the media as saying that no passenger is safe in long-distance trains that pass through since armed robbers or dacoits could strike anywhere, anytime. Event the police are afraid of the robbers – they do escort duty on trains risking their life. The dacoits come in large gangs often, and the couple of policemen on duty are often powerless to do anything.

The police say that over half a dozen gangs regularly commit crimes on trains in Bihar.

As early as in 1985, the Railways Norms Committee had recommended that at least 8,000 policemen be recruited to guard the trains. However, today, 24 years later, just 3,149 constables have been deployed for the job. While some trains have just four or five armed policemen, most trains have no policemen at all on board.

Mamata Banerjee, Minister for Railway, has urged the Ministry of Home Affairs to deploy additional armed policemen on those trains that pass through Bihar that are vulnerable to robbery.

The Palamu Express has had the maximum number of armed robberies between 2004 and 2005, and hence the train is aptly nicknamed the ‘nightmare express.’

Records with the Railways and the Railway Police show that most crimes in trains passing through Bihar have occurred in the following routes and sections of the East Central Railway: Patna-Gaya, Mughalsarai-Jhajha, Danapur-Mughalsarai, Patna-Kiul, Gaya-Mughalsarai, Hajipur-Gorakhpur, and Barauni-Samastipur.

A recent report of the National Crime Records Bureau shows that 51% of all train robberies happened in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and that the jurisdiction of the Patna Railway Police alone accounts for 23% cent of all the crimes in trains committed throughout the country.

The Bureau’s report also reveals that, in the last 8 years, Bihar recorded a total of 2,076 crimes on trains – which is about 11% of the crimes that the Railway Police reported from all over the country.

Here are a few of the recent crimes on trains in Bihar:

The other day robbers killed a passenger named Mukesh Mandal at Mohanpur, near Jhajha railway station, for just having refused to hand them over his mobile phone. Mandal was shot point blank.

Armed robber looted money and objects worth about Rs 50,000 from the passengers of the Patna-Jhajha passenger train on the Jamui-Keul section of Eastern Railway. The robbers, who opened fire, made good their escape from the running train at Mohanpur station about an hour before midnight. The train did not have a single security personnel on board.

On the night of September 5, 2009, armed robbers raided a bogie for the physically challenged people in the Danapur-Howarh Express (2352 Down), resulting in one of them suffering a bullet injury. Following this ugly incident, the escort detachment of the train was placed under suspension for dereliction of duty since, according to top police officers, had the security personnel acted in time, the robbers could have been nabbed.

Motilal Yadav, a loco-driver with Eastern Railway, who was travelling as a passenger on the Poorvanchal Express, was shot by robbers on the night of September 16, 2009, when he refused to part with the Rs 52,000 he had with him. Yadav had been on his way to Gorakhpur to attend a wedding.

Again, at night, armed dacoits attacked the Delhi-bound Howrah-Delhi Lal Quila Express and robbed many passengers of their assets, after wounding four of them.

Manmohan Mahanta, an Army personnel hailing from Orissa, was thrown out of a running train by a gang of dacoits near Aurangabad in Bihar.

Five persons suffered injures while resisting looters armed with guns and knives on the Patna-Pune Express, near Ara railway station, in Bihar.

Around 50 persons were injured when a gang of around 50 armed robbers attacked the Sealdah-Jaipur express near the Dhanbad railway station in Bihar. The passengers were robbed of their cash and valuables. Those passengers who tried to overpower the assailants were cruelly beaten up.

On August 30, 2009, train robbers killed railway a gangman, Mukesh Mandal, and wounded 10 passengers of the Jhajha-Patna local train in Jamui district of Bihar, coming under the East Central Railway. The armed gang, who entered the train at Jamui, also looted mobile phones, other valuables and cash worth nearly Rs 1 lakh. The gangman was murdered when he tried to stop the looters. Again, the criminals escaped from the train after pulling the chain.

In 21st century India, dacoits can criminals can fearlessly attack trains, threaten, wound or kill passengers and loot their valuables – many would be shocked at this. Why does this continue to happen? Because the opportunity is provided, and because the robbers and dacoits in Bihar know they can operate with impunity, with no fear of being caught.

Half-hearted measures to prevent crimes in trains are not going to help. What is required here is an acknowledgement of the problem, and then the political will to ensure that this would not happen. Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar has done a lot of good work in reducing crime rate in the state by better law and order enforcement. It is time the cops in Bihar, as well as the Indian Railways whose prime responsibility this is, to ensure that that adequate police personnel are deployed in the trains to deter the dacoits, as well as proactive measures to identify and jail the criminals.