TNN
Bangalore, Mar 27: Thanda juice peelo, acchi neend ayegi (have cold juice, you sleep well) was the last words these six men heard before they woke up at the city railway station on Wednesday morning.
The mango juice lived up to the promise —they slept so well that they woke up to find that they had been robbed of their bags, mobiles and other valuables worth Rs 1 lac.
Two, possibly three, persons on board the Mumbai-Bangalore Udyan Express offered mango juice, suspected to be laced with sleeping tablets, to travellers in the reserved S-8 and S-9 coaches.
According to the Government Railway Police (GRP) officials, the beat police on the platform reported about six men, including an employee of Wipro, to be in a drowsy condition. They were taken to Victoria hospital for first aid.
Five of the six victims — Ashok K Prajapathi (29), Thoufik Nagavkar (25), Chandrakanth Puranik (50) (all from Mumbai), M D Rizwan, (26) from Mysore and Anup Gopikumar from Bangalore and employed with Wipro— are recovering in hospital.
They were travelling in S-9 coach. The sixth victim, Aravind from Bangalore, who was in S-8 coach, is expected to give his statement on Thursday. He fled the hospital complaining bad facilities.
"We administered a stomach wash for all the (five) victims. The blood samples are subjected to toxicology tests after which we can ascertain what drug was mixed in the mango juice," said a duty doctor.
According to victims who were in S-9 coach, one person wearing a pink coloured shirt introduced himself as Nadeem (seat no 67, S-9 coach). He, along with another person (name not yet revealed) who was seated at seat no 39, S-9 coach, started conversing with the victims.
"Nadeem continued to speak about himself, his family and his brother. He said his elder brother was working with the Indian Army in Bangalore and he was going to see him. After the train left Gulbarga, all of us, including the two conmen, had dinner served from the railway pantry. Minutes before Raichur station, the conmen offered mango juice packs saying they got them for free and was a good drink to have a good night sleep," Prajapati, one of the victims, told the Times of India.
Such was the potency of the drug that the victims were in a drowsy state even on Wednesday evening. "I had been to Mumbai to attend an interview. Luckily, I changed my mind in the last minute not to carry the laptop," said Anup, who is employed with Wipro in Electronic City.
The police are yet to question Aravind. "The other conman must have been an associate of Nadeem and his friend. It will be clear only after Arvind records his statements," the officials said. Or else, either Nadeem or his associate in S-9 must have given the juice to Aravind.
The GRP officials recorded the victims’ statements in the evening. "Cases will be booked under IPC sections 378 (administrating sedatives with an intention of committing theft) and 379 (theft). We are contacting the Mumbai station for the reservation details given by the conmen. Meanwhile, a sketch is being prepared and will be sent to all the concerned stations," said GRP officials.