Chennai: The railway police arrested a 7-member gang from Uttar Pradesh, who were allegedly involved in as many as 15 cases of robberies of train passengers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh during the last two years.

According to railway police superintendent of police, P. Vijayakumar, Chennai, his team had cracked all the recent robbery cases registered in Jolarpet railway police station. He said in each case three to five people travelling in trains were victims.

The police are on the look out for few more members of the gang and also trying to recover nearly 100 sovereigns of gold robbed from passengers.

The arrested were identified as Mithun, 25, Sunny, 23, Krishanakumar, 28, Ajay, 22, Bituram, 22, Deepak Kumar, 19, and Mukesh Kumar, 36. All hail from Shamli district, UP.

The arrested were wanted in five cases registered in Jolarpet railway police station, two each in Salem and Chengalpet, one in Chennai Egmore and Erode, besides five cases in AP.

A press release from the railway police said special team headed by DSP V. Ponram, comprising the inspector of police Saravanan, Lawrence, Gunasekaran, Manikandan, Loganathan nabbed the seven suspects involved in the interstate train robberies.

The gang’s modus operandi involves stopping the train by pulling emergency chain and snatching chains of the passengers sleeping in the berths close to the windows and then jumping off from the trains. The rail passengers are advised to make use of the 24 X 7 help line number 1512 in case of emergency.