more-in The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has prepared a nationwide database of criminals to prevent and detect crimes. A committee has been constituted to check the data and monitor the movements of criminals, said Senior Divisional Security Commissioner S.R. Gandhi. The data has been prepared with the photographs, fingerprints, names of criminals, languages they speak, nativity, modus operandi, number of cases involved and other details. “Robber gangs from many States are operating in Andhra Pradesh. We have prepared the data with the details of 70 notorious criminals in the division,” he said. In the wake of the series of signal tampering by gangs in the South Central Railway, the security officials have decided to collaborate with the Signal and Telecommunication (S&T) wing with the RPF and the Government Railway Police (GRP). Whenever there was a signal failure and the train stopped at a no-halt location, the S&T would alert the RPF and the GRP personnel, who would rush to the spot to prevent any possible crime, Mr. Gandhi said. The RPF has noted the auspicious dates like marriage muhurtams, festivals and holidays and will deploy additional armed forces in trains to prevent thefts. In addition to the existing 500 CC cameras, 2,000 more have been proposed in about 150 railway stations in the division. In Vijayawada station, 55 cameras were installed and 150 more were proposed. Likewise, additional cameras would be installed in all major stations. As Vijayawada has become the State capital, the railway station would be equipped with the Integrated Security System (ISS) and a Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) soon, he said. The RPF registered 274 theft cases (of passenger belongings) and recovered about ?3.60 crore (up to August) in 95 cases, which was the highest recovery in the Indian Railways. Smuggling cases The force has detected about 43 gold and ganja smuggling cases and recovered property worth ?1.54 crore. For the first time, the AP government has given award under the Award for Best Crime Detection (ABCD Award) for the Vijayawada RPF division, Mr. Gandhi said.

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