Man with hearing and speech impairment held for Rs 25 lakh theft on train

Narmadapuram (MP), Apr 8 (PTI) The Government Railway Police has arrested a man with hearing and speech impairment for a theft of over Rs 25 lakh on a running train in Madhya Pradesh's Narmadapuram district, an official said on Tuesday.

The accused, who can not hear or speak at all, was arrested from Rajasthan last week.

As per complainant Sandeep Madhukar (52), the theft took place when he was travelling from Panvel in Maharashtra to Jabalpur on the Coimbatore-Jabalpur Express on March 19.

He went to the toilet and upon return found his backpack with jewellery worth Rs 24.51 lakh and mobile phone worth Rs 1.33 lakh missing.

After he filed a complaint at GRP Jabalpur police station, the case was transferred to Itarsi as the theft had taken place near Itarsi.

CCTV footage showed a suspicious-looking man getting down from the coach in which Madhukar was travelling at Itarsi.

A team headed by inspector Ramsnehi Chouhan started a probe. On April 2, a tip-off was received from GRP Badmer (Rajasthan) about the suspect, said Chouhan, adding that the team travelled to Badmer and arrested accused Devi Chand.

The stolen goods were recovered from his possession.

Chand has not disclosed his address. The investigators checked if his biometric data matches that registered at nearby Aadhaar centres, Fingerprint Branch, Bhopal and NCRB. So far, they have had no success, the official said.

After obtaining his police custody till April 8, Chand's medical examination was conducted by ENT specialists in AIIMS Bhopal. The doctors found that he was completely incapable of speaking and hearing, Chouhan said. PTI COR ADU KRK