6 from Bihar held for cheating guest workers at Central

In a case of attention diversion, a six-member gang from Bihar promised to book railway tickets for guest workers to return home for Deepavali and escaped with their mobile phones and cash. The gang has been arrested by the Triplicane police. 

A 28-year-old guest worker from West Bengal, who was working at a construction site in Tambaram, reached Central station on Thursday to return to his hometown. He did not know that unreserved tickets were no more available. 

That is when a few men approached him claiming that they can get a seat reserved for him and took him in an autorickshaw. After reaching Chepauk, the gang robbed his mobile phone and Rs 5,000 in cash and fled the spot. Based on his complaint, the Triplicane police registered a case and inspector Kalaiselvi and team secured the six suspects with the help of CCTV footage. 

The accused were identified as A Aman Kumar (23), S Rabikumar (22), Sanji Mahdor (23), S Mohit Kumar (21), S Rajeshkumar (26) and S Sushil Kumar (22), all hailing from different parts of Bihar. As many as 19 mobile phones and Rs 5,800 were seized from them. 

The police said the gang reached the city a week ago and stayed on the platform near Chennai Central to con guest workers who desperately wanted to return home. “They would convince the victims that they can get tickets reserved for them and escape with their phone and cash in the guise of speaking to some authorities,” said inspector Kalaiselvi. 

Some of the phones retrieved from the accused were stolen from passengers who waited at the station for their train. The police said the gang visited the city often and involved in similar crimes and sold the phones in their hometown. Since unreserved tickets are not issued by the railways, the fraudsters exploited it to cheat the gullible, the police added. All six men were remanded in judicial custody on Saturday.