CHENNAI: The CB-CID has arrested five more suspects in the sensational Rs 5.78-crore train heist case reported in August 2016. After a prolonged investigation, two suspects from Madhya Pradesh were arrested on October 12. Police said others involved in the heist, including the mastermind Mohar Singh, were lodged in different prisons in Madhya Pradesh after they were arrested in a few other cases by the Madhya Pradesh police.

According to a statement from the CB-CID, Mohar Singh, P Rusi Pardi, S Kaliya Pardi, and P Mahesh Pardi were taken into custody from Guna Central Prison in Madhya Pradesh, and N Brajmohan Pardi was taken into custody from Ashok Nagar prison.

The five men were brought to Chennai on the prisoner transit warrant and produced before the Saidapet magistrate court which granted the TN CB-CID 14 days’ custody of the accused.Preliminary inquiries with the two men arrested on 12 October revealed that the two men entered into the compartment through the hole, broke open the wooden boxes and took the cash. They wrapped the money on lungis and passed it on to three other men on the rooftop. While the train was reaching Vriddhachalam, those on the rooftop gave the cash bundles wrapped in lungis to other gang members on the ground, waiting on the trackside and all of them fled the spot.

On August 8, 2016, a cash load of currency was transported from Indian Overseas Bank in Salem to the Reserve Bank of India in Chennai.  A railway parcel van VPH 08831 was attached to the Salem-Chennai Egmore Express train. The train left the Salem junction at 9.05 pm and arrived at Egmore at 3.55 am on August 9, 2016.

The parcel van was opened around 11 am by the RBI officials who found that `5.78 crore was stolen from the van after making a hole on the top of the roof.The Egmore government railway police registered a case on August 9, 2016 and the case was transferred to the Crime Branch CID on August 11 2016.