Uttar Pradesh

Bijnor district

Avantika Express

(Clockwise from above) Councillor Harvinder Singh is suspected to have orchestrated robberies in Rajdhani trains as well; his house in Haldaur, Uttar Pradesh; and a CCTV grab from Mumbai Central station in July

Cover is blown after arrest in Andhra; UP town didn’t know of criminal past.A councillor from a town around 1,600 km from Mumbai is giving railway and police authorities hell. Harvinder “Sunny” Singh, 33, councillor of ward 21of Haldaur in’shas allegedly pulled off 14 train heists since 2015, including one in a Mumbai Central-Indore Express last month.For at least three years, Singh allegedly boarded air-conditioned coaches from different parts of the country on valid tickets, waited for passengers to fall asleep at night, stole their valuables, passed them on to an associate in a sleeper or general coach, fled as quietly as he came, and returned home as if nothing was amiss.Singh’s luck ran out in April this year when the Vijayawada police arrested him for a theft and found that he was behind 12 other similar robberies. The police also recovered a loot of diamonds and gold ornaments worth Rs 70,38,500 from him. He was let out on bail, but soon went back to his thieving ways. He has been absconding since last month.Western Railway (WR) officials said his latest victim was a passenger of Mumbai Central-Indore, who reported theft of a .32-bore licensed pistol, 10 live rounds of ammunition, one spare filled magazine and Rs 1.90 lakh in cash on July 8.After the Government Railway Police (GRP) of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, registered a case of theft, the victim identified Singh from CCTV video grabs procured from Mumbai Central station.Abhishek Kumar, executive officer of Haldaur Municipal Board, said Singh was elected a ward councillor as an Independent in December 2017, but no one back home had an inkling of his suspected criminal past. “He hasn’t returned home since his arrest in April.”WR officials suspect that Singh orchestrated many such thefts in Rajdhani trains.AK Singh, principal chief security commissioner, WR, said city authorities are coordinating with Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh GRPs in tracking Singh down. “We are hopeful of making his arrest soon.”