The November 21 heist of gold biscuits worth Rs 1.44 crore aboard the Howrah-Jodhpur-Bikaner-Express seemed to be a routine case of rogue cops engaging in robbery.
However, the case took a shocking turn when a Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrested Rajesh Kumar Singh, the station house officer (SHO) of the GRP Police Station.
The probe is now uncovering a wider operation that carefully planned to steal Kolkata-based gold trader Manoj Soni's gold biscuits, as per a Hindustan Times report.
How it happened
The incident began after Dhananjay Shashwat, one of Soni's employees, was tasked with delivering gold biscuits worth Rs 1.44 crore to a Jaipur-based trader.
Shashwat boarded the Howrah-Jodhpur-Bikaner-Express on the night of November 20.
Later into the night, when the train reached Bihar's Gaya, four men dressed as cops boarded the third-AC coach—two of which allegedly sat near him.
“Somewhere between Koderma and Gaya, the cops pulled the chain and got down with Shashwat. They all travelled by autorickshaw and later by Bolero Jeep to reach Manpur in Gaya at the water bottling plant,” Shashwat had alleged in his complaint, as per the report.
At Manpur, he claimed that the cops already had a goldsmith waiting, who broke down the gold into pieces.
The employee then claimed that he was sent back to Howrah, after which he informed Soni, and a complaint was filed on November 21.
For days, the investigation proceeded slowly, with the focus being the four cops aboard the train. Over time, Soni began to doubt his employee too, and informed even senior police officers of his doubts, but to no avail.
About a week later, Soni filed an additional complaint with the Railway SP at Patna, who took it up with the railway police at Gaya. He also approached Khagaria MP Rajesh Varma.
It was at this point that the tide of the case turned, as an SIT was soon formed.
The detailed SIT probe into the robbery, which took into account "technical evidence, call detail records, tower location and other investigations", led to even Rajesh Kumar Singh, the investigating officer, being called for questioning on Wednesday.
He was arrested after eight hours of questioning. By then, the names of the four suspended constables—Karan Kumar, Abhishek Chaturvedi, Ranjay Kumar, and Anand Mohan—were also revealed. Two civilians were also said to be involved in the case.
The extent of Shashwat's role in the case, as well as the identities of the others involved, is yet to be determined.
