Agra: In an effort to clamp down on train robberies, the government railway police of Agra division have arrested 24 men from seven stations in the last three weeks. More than half of the nabbed men are allegedly history-sheeters, with one of them having Rs 15,000 reward money pinned on him.

Most of the accused have been nabbed from the Agra Cantonment Station, followed by Aligarh, Etawah, Mathura, Tundla, Kasganj and Mainpuri stations. All the men fall under the 23-31 years of age category.

Exclusive data shared by GRP to TOI revealed that nearly 11kg of narcotics such as diazepam, ganja and marijuana were recovered during the raid. Police said they were used on train passengers by ‘zeharkhurani’ (drug-and-rob) gang members. Besides, a total of 32 bottles of hooch, 13 knives, two .315 bore guns along with four cartridges were seized from their possession.

Speaking to TOI, superintendent of police (SP) for GRP Gopeshnath Khanna said, “Out of the two dozen men, more than half are history-sheeters and have been involved in several robbery , loot and chain-snatching incidents in Agra railway division.”

Profiling some of the accused, Khanna said Manoj, caught in Kasganj, has four cases registered against him in Farrukhabad. He said Moinuddin was wanted in Buxar (Bihar) and Ballia, nabbed at Etawah, had been involved in two zeharkhurani cases.

Speaking further, the SP said Vineet has a Rs 15,000 reward on him for being allegedly involved in three cases of robberies. Besides, Ajay, Arvind and Shaukin are wanted in Shikohabad, Faridabad, Agra and Aligarh. They were also caught in possession of .315 bore guns and several kilograms of illegal drugs.

Police have just mentioned the first names of the accused in their record.

