Tatanagar railway police have busted a gang of thieves who would steal ornaments and other valuables from passengers’ luggage on running trains.

Nine persons aged between 30 years to 45 years were arrested. First, three were nabbed from the Howrah-Ranchi-Hatia Express early on Saturday morning. The rest were arrested from Kandra and Bagbera after interrogation of the three.

Those arrested were identified as Pervez Kumar Mandal, Subhash Mandal, Niranjan Mandal, Gautam Kumar, Manchal Kumar Mandal, Sadhan Mandal, Manoranjan Mandal, Ravindra Kumar and Sudhir Sahani, all residents of Khagaria district of Bihar.

Tatanagar RPF inspector M.K. Sahoo said Pervez, Subhas and Niranjan were getting into the Howrah-bound train around 4am when they started running at the sight of an RPF team.

After the three were nabbed, they revealed that they were planning to steal from the luggage of passengers.

“The arrested thieves revealed that there are nine people who had been stealing valuables from passengers’ luggage since the past 20 days or so. Four of them would stay at a rented house in Bagbera locality, and five others would stay at another rented house in Kandra,' said Sahoo.

He said some gang members would sell bead garlands to passengers.

“The remaining members of the gang would open up the luggage by using screwdrivers and take out the valuables. The thieves are so expert in stealing that they would even set the dismantled suitcases right in a very short time so that the passengers would not be able to know about the theft immediately,” Sahoo said.

Five smartphones, two gold ornaments and some jewellery of lower value have been recovered, he added.