Hyderabad: Government Railway Police arrested a key member of the infamous Pardhi gang from Secunderabad station on Monday morning. The gang used a train-tracking app to track trains and tampered with signals to stop them. Gang members then robbed passengers at knife point. They used this modus operandi to rob passengers of the Yeswantpur Express and Jabalpur Express trains at railway signals near Kaukuntla and Divitipalli railway stations in Mahbubnagar district in September last year.
RPS Mahbubnagar booked two cases of dacoity and arrested eight members of the pardhi gang, including the one on Monday. A key accused, Dada Shinde, is still at large. Speaking about the modus operandi, GRP superintendent, Secunderabad, B. Anuradha said, “The gang traces the train using the “Where is My Train” app. It tampers with the signal half an hour before the train reaches their location. When the driver halts the train, the gang form a human ladder, threaten women passengers with a knife and collect their gold ornaments.”
A police official associated with the probe said, “On reliable information that the main accused Avinash Sriram Kale had come to the city to meet the imprisoned gang members, we kept an eye on the Secunderabad railway station. We nabbed him when he came to board a train,” he added.
