An interstate thief hid in a pond for 5 hours and inhaled lotus stems to avoid arrest. RPF caught him in Jabalpur with the help of divers. He was wanted in theft cases in several states.
Jabalpur (MP). An interstate thief adopted such a trick to escape arrest that everyone was surprised. He remained submerged underwater for about five hours and used a hollow lotus stem to breathe. However, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) called divers and finally caught him. The incident took place on the morning of April 6 at Sihora railway station in Jabalpur division. Around 4:50 am, RPF personnel were on preventive duty when they saw a suspicious man alighting from train number 11753. When the soldiers stopped him, he tried to run away. It is alleged that he had tried to steal a woman’s purse in the train.
As the officers approached him, the accused jumped into a moss-filled pond near a nearby market. To escape, he adopted a deliberate and dangerous method. He remained hidden under water for hours and kept breathing through the hollow stem of a lotus so that no one could find out. But RPF also did not accept defeat. They contacted the local police and deployed divers to search the pond. After a prolonged search operation, the accused was finally located and taken out. Even then he tried to escape one last time, but the team caught him. He also suffered minor injuries in this scuffle.
Initially the accused tried to mislead the police about his identity. He was later identified as Harvinder Singh (32), resident of Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. RPF officials confirmed his identity by looking at an old Times of India report and records through the Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS).
Officials said that Singh is a prolific interstate criminal, who has several cases registered against him for theft and snatching from train passengers. He has allegedly committed thefts in several states including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Many cases are registered against him under sections 379 and 411 of IPC.
He is wanted in several cases in the GRP units of Bhopal, Itarsi, Ujjain, Igatpuri and Visakhapatnam and several warrants are also pending against him. Investigators said his modus operandi was to board trains without tickets, target vulnerable passengers—especially women and the elderly—and steal valuables and get off at intermediate stations.
To avoid being caught, Singh did not keep any identity card with him and kept changing SIM cards frequently. A case has been registered at RPF Post Jabalpur under relevant provisions of the Railway Act. The officials have alerted several GRP units, and GRP Igatpuri, Bhopal and Itarsi have also confirmed the existing warrant against him. Now he will be produced before the Special Railway Magistrate in Jabalpur for remand. This operation was carried out under the leadership of IPF Rajiv Kharab under ‘Operation Passenger Security’, in which SI Arvind and constables Vinay Maurya and Ashish Yadav were also involved.