HOWRAH: A gang of seven eunuchs robbed passengers of their belongings at an unreserved general class compartment of the Chennai-Howrah Mail passing between the Jajpur Road and Bhadrak stations in Odisha on Sunday evening. Some of the gang members were allegedly carrying lathis and daggers and didn’t hesitate to thrash passengers who refused to hand over cash.

Sixteen passengers lodged a complaint with the GRP in Howrah on Sunday morning and some of them sought assistance to return home to Bihar as they had lost everything.

According to the complaint, the eunuchs boarded the compartment at Jajpur Road at 10.50pm. The seven-member gang started demanding Rs 10 each from the passengers.

Trouble erupted when some passengers refused to pay. Some of the eunuchs allegedly pulled out daggers and started threatening the passengers. Some of them were even thrashed with lathis till they were in no position to offer any resistance.

For the next 40-odd minutes, the eunuchs went on a looting spree, snatching whatever the passengers were carrying. Many of the passengers were labourers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal , returning home from Chennai and other places in south India. They were carrying whatever they had managed to save of their wages. When the train reached Bhadrak, the gang got off and disappeared.

“The passengers were completely terrorised. Ashok Singh of Bihar was thrashed mercilessly and had to part with the Rs 22,000 he was carrying. He was part of a nine-member group from Ara in Bihar, returning home from the south. Bikash Sada was another victim who lost Rs 10,000. A passenger from East Midnapore lost Rs 10,000 while Asim Chatterjee of Liluah in Howrah lost Rs 5,300,” a GRP official said.

Such was their state that Ashok Dutta, the inspector in charge of Howrah GRP, had to pay for their lunch and also arranged for their travel back home in Bihar. Three of the injured passengers also received treatment at the Howrah District Hospital.

“We have received a complaint and have forwarded it to Bhadrak as the criminals got off there,” said Milan Kanta Das, superintendent of railway police, Howrah.

South Eastern Railway officials said that they were aware of the assault that happened under the jurisdiction of East Coast Railway.

