Indian robbers cut hole in train roof in $750,000 heist
The daring heist
occurred somewhere along the more than 300-kilometre (186-mile) long journey,
but the missing loot was only discovered hours after the express train arrived
in the city of Chennai.
The train’s mail
carriage was carrying 3.4 billion rupees ($51 million) belonging to India’s
central bank and was being escorted by armed police seated in the next
compartment.
Police suspect about
six to eight robbers made a four-foot square hole in the carriage roof using a
cutting torch before escaping undetected with some of the cash.
“We are
inquiring with the train guard and the police personnel if they heard any
unusual noises on the roof,” said police superintendent P Vijayakumar.
Police said the
robbers may have jumped off the train roof and were combing the tracks along
the route in search of any of the missing notes.
“They created a
manhole and then they sneaked one after the other and lifted the bundles to the
roof before taking them away,” inspector general of police M. Ramasubramani,
who is heading the investigation, told AFP.
Another police
officer was quoted in the Hindu newspaper as saying the gang might have hidden
themselves in the carriage before it was locked for the journey on Monday
night, before escaping through the roof.
Reserve Bank of
India officials discovered the theft on Tuesday morning when they came to
collect the cash from the carriage for disposal. The cash, although still
usable, was soiled and was transported from the city of Salem to Chennai for
destruction.
The audacious
crime has echoes of the “Great Train Robbery” of 1963 when a gang of criminals
in Britain stopped a night mail train and made off with 2.6 million pounds.
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