Railway police arrest handbag thief

Vijayawada: A thief specialized in robbing gold ornaments and cash of sleeping train passengers was arrested by Vijayawada railway police on Friday.

Raghu Khosla, who was taken into custody after being found suspicious at Vijayawada railway station has been a professional thief who targets women passengers when trains stop at major stations. He looks for women passengers who are sleeping, takes their handbags to toilet and leaves the bags with them after pocketing whatever cash or gold ornaments found in the bags. He stole nearly Rs12 lakh worth gold from a woman passenger last month and went to Delhi, but came back to Vijayawada to continue his misdeeds.

Police found him suspicious as he was moving around on the platform but surprisingly, Raghu Khosla claimed to be a journalist and showed them his press identity card. On further questioning his true face was revealed. Railway DSP Ramakrishna said he committed hundreds of thefts in Mumbai, Delhi and other cities. Gold ornaments worth over Rs12 lakh were recovered from him.