Active for 10 years, the gang used to loot outstation trains and sell the booty in Navi Mumbai wholesale market.
A gang used to break open seals of parcel vans of outstation trains, steal goods and sell them in Navi Mumbai wholesale market.
Recently, when four gang members went to Sassoon Dock at Colaba to sell the stolen tiger prawns, they were arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
“Moinnuddin Sayyed (48), Kasi Mani (35), Aslam Sayyed (38) and Shankar alias Jumbo (36) were arrested and tiger prawns worth Rs26,000 was seized from them,” said Anil Sharma, chief security commissioner of RPF, Central Railway.
They had been stealing goods, including spices, electronic goods, silk sarees, sea food like pomprets and tiger prawns and steel ball bearings, for the past 10 years.
Moinnuddin, the gang leader, was released on bail while the rest are in Adharwadi Jail at Kalyan.
Earlier, the gang was involved in stealing nutmeg worth Rs6 lakh from a north-bound train at Rennigunta station on Southern Railway three months ago. Panvel RPF inspector Prashant Sansare recovered the stolen spices bags by arresting six members of the gang.
During interrogation, they said they had stolen some cold storage boxes containing tiger prawns from parcel van of Konark Express between Sandhurst Road and Masjid stations in November 2011 after breaking its seal, said PC Sinha, RPF’s divisional security commandant. The parcel of tiger prawns had been booked from coastal Andhra Pradesh by a wholesale fish dealer at Colaba, he said.
Besides Maharashtra, the gang is operating in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat for the past eight to 10 years.
Theft cases have been registered against the gang at RPF offices at CST, Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Lonavla, Bandra, Andheri and Borivli.
“They first did a recce of the area and then decide where to board the train and where to drop the goods. They would select a spot accessible to a road and where two gang members would collect the dropped goods. Later, Moinnuddin would sell the stolen goods,” said Shakeel Khan, inspector CST RPF.
A resident of Dharavi, Moinnuddin built a big house at his native place Hospet in Karnataka with the money, said Khan.
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