A band of armed dacoits stormed the general compartment of Swarnajayanti Express in the wee hours of Tuesday between Nagpur and Sonkhap.
A 20-year-old Jhansi-bound passenger, who tried to halt the train by pulling the chain, was stabbed by the dacoits who decamped looting nearly a dozen passengers. This was the second incident of dacoity in the same train after the first incident in July.
Shrilal Baghel, an agriculturist by profession, had boarded in Nagpur shortly after Monday midnight. According to Baghel's statement to Government Railway Police, the train started after a 15-minute halt in platform number of one. Half-an-hour later, around four unidentified persons got up from their seats and started threatening the passengers to part with their valuables. The goons were on a looting spree when Baghel got up to resist them.
Baghel, who had come to see his elder brother staying at Rameshwari a fortnight ago, was also threatened at knife-point to part with cash of Rs 1,500. Enraged by the goons' audacity, Baghel sprang up to pull the chain while the goons were snatching a gold-chain and mobile from his co-passengers.
The dacoit sitting close to Baghel, was left aghast by the youngster's reaction. In order to stop Baghel, the goons attacked him with a knife leaving injuries on his right wrist and below the armpit. The train, which had slowed down, halted at Sonkap near Katol where the dacoits fled after getting down.
A profusely bleeding Baghel was rescued by the train's guard who stopped a Nagpur-bound train to send back the injured youngster for immediate medical attention. Baghel is at present recuperating at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital.
GRP and Railway Protection Force from Amla escorted the train to Bhopal. "The statements are being recorded at Bhopal. We would exactly come to know about the magnitude of loss after the statements of all the victims reach us," said senior inspector Gomti Prasad Yadav, in-charge of GRP. Meanwhile, GRP and RPF have stepped up security and also probing the incident.