The Tribune, February 13, 2000
Passengers drugged, looted
Tribune News Services
AMBALA, Feb 12 — Tea and biscuits were used to drug and loot 18 train passengers of their savings and belongings.
The passengers, most of them who eke out a living doing manual labour, were travelling by Jansewa Express when they fell unconscious after taking tea and biscuits. They had boarded the train at Jalandhar and it was only at Ambala cantonment station this morning at 5.25 that the incident came to light.
The 18 passengers were travelling in two compartments of Jansewa Express. When some passengers boarded the train at Ambala, they noticed that the passengers in their compartment were lying unconscious. They immediately informed the train guard that passengers were lying in an unconscious state.
It was then that the police was called and the doctors were informed. All the 18 passengers are hospitalised. While five passengers are in Ambala cantonment Civil Hospital, 13 passengers are in Ambala City hospital.
Two persons of the group — Jeeten Mukhia and Sanjay Vishwakarma — did not fall prey to the drugging. Jeeten Mukhia told the police that he was aware of such incidents and decided not to partake the biscuits and the tea.
The other person Sanjay Vishwakarma told the police that he had only taken tea but had avoided the biscuits. He said that he took the tea seeing other co-passengers accepting the tea. Sanjay did not fall fully unconscious and he told the police that he could make out that the train had passed the Ludhiana station.
Harender, a resident of Gorakhpur, who had just recovered consciousness, said that they were given tea and biscuits by a group of people who hailed from their region. "I work at Nawashahr and I was going home. I was having money which I had saved. The group looted us," he said.
Still in a drowsy state, Harender said that about 25 to 30 minutes after taking the tea and biscuits, he had felt extremely sleepy and fell unconscious. It was only after reaching Ambala hospital that he regained his senses. He said that the tea had tasted different but he had not suspected any foul play.
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