Ex-railway employee turns train thief

Knee-deep in debt, a retired railway serviceman decided his employer owed him more than the pension he had been drawing, and took to thieving AC compartment travellers in Mumbai Central Terminus (MCT)-bound mail/express trains.

“Jilendra Kamala Prasad Pandey, 58, was booked under section 379 (theft) IPC on Tuesday. A resident of Nalasopara in Thane district, Pandey was inspector-in-charge at the railway ticket printing press in Byculla. He had taken voluntary retirement three years ago. We have recovered gold ornaments and six mobile phones collectively valued over Rs1 lakh from his home,” said senior police inspector Bharat Rane of Mumbai Central railway police station.

A leather bag containing a digital camera valued at Rs12,500 belonging to Bhaskar Giri, 35, who was travelling in the IInd/AC coach of Golden Temple Express from Vadodara to Mumbai Central on Tuesday, was also recovered from Pandey.

The first such incident came to light on June 11 when businessman Anand Kumar Patel, 53, who was travelling by IInd/AC in Gujarat Mail from Anand to MCT, alighted at Dadar for a while. Upon returning, he was shocked to find his leather bag containing Rs8,500 cash and a credit card missing.

He lodged a complaint with the railway police. He was rattled to learn that Rs15,000 was withdrawn through his stolen card the same day. But this proved to be the robber’s mistake as the police then collected CCTV footage from the ATM and identified him.