A train robber stole a woman’s bag on a train, jumped into a puddle and disappeared for fear of being caught by the police. Police searched for him in the pond but were unable to find him for about five hours. Eventually, he was arrested.
The incident took place in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, when 42-year-old Harvinder Singh stole a woman’s handbag on the Rewa-Itwari Express train in the early hours of Monday and escaped.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel spotted him and gave chase. As the train slowed down a bit, the thief jumped into a pond filled with lotus plants and algae in the Khetola area, according to news agency PTI.
RPF members saw him jumping into the pond and immediately informed the local police. A search operation was launched, but the thief in the water was not located. The RPF personnel were certain that he had not gotten out after he jumped.
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After five hours of searching, Harvinder was finally arrested. How he managed to survive in the water for so long remained a question. Police say, according to the report, he may have used the lotus stems to breathe while remaining hidden under the algae-covered surface of the pond.
A thief is on the most wanted list in many states
It later turned out that the thief was wanted in several states. Initially, Singh provided a fake name and address, but Inspector Rajeev Kharb recognized him from a photo of a wanted criminal stored on his phone since 2018.
According to officials, Singh was previously a freelancer in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh, where he hails.
He is also wanted by the Government Railway Police in Bhopal in five cases and is also facing charges in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, among other states. In 2018, he allegedly carried out the theft of gold and diamonds worth $70 lakh on a train in Visakhapatnam.
He typically targeted air conditioning coaches, hid in toilets to avoid ticket checkers, frequently changed SIM cards, and changed his routes every three months. He also did not carry any identification documents.
Inspector Kharb said that since Singh’s arrest, he had been receiving calls from as far away as Kerala, where Singh was also wanted in a 2024 train robbery case.
