Hyderabad: The railway protection force ( RPF ) intelligence analytics team apprehends a man who was accused of having committed over 19 thefts in trains, at the Vijayawada railway station. The officials confiscated around Rs 8.55 lakh and gold ornaments worth Rs 2.38 lakh from the possession of the habitual offender.The accused was identified as Madhuri Venkata Viveka Anand, a resident of Kukatpally, Hyderabad. Though the man was apprehended on March 20, the incident came to light on Saturday.He was produced before the VIII Addl. MM Court for Railways in Vijayawada and sent to judicial custody.According to the sources in railway police, the accused would usually book a ticket in the AC compartment and make off with the luggage of the co-passengers at night when the train halted at any station.On October 1, last year, a passenger travelling in A1 coach of Circar Express had lodged a complaint with the railway police that his belongings were stolen.On January 14 this year, another theft case was reported in the A1 coach of the same train. During investigation, the RPF team obtained the passenger reservation charts of the two separate days, and figured out the common name, Venkat.The RPF personnel also found in the two reservation slips that the accused had given different numbers to book his tickets. Hence, they became suspicious of him and tipped off the government railway police (GRP) who started tracking both the mobile numbers.A joint team of RPF and GRP personnel was formed to investigate the whereabouts of the accused by tracing his mobile numbers. Finally, he was caught red-handed on platform no 1 of Vijayawada station near south side booking counter at 3pm, on March 20.On being grilled further by the police, he confessed to the theft cases committed on the trains. However, the GRP officials, Vijayawada requested the court for Venkat’s police custody so that they can recover more stolen properties from him.

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