To begin with, an dossier of almost 2,000 such offenders, with details of their criminal past and latest photographs, has been compiled and provided at railway police stations all over the State to enable easy identification of culprits by the victims.

``The method has proved to be quite effective over the last two months enabling the GRP to solve at least two major cases of train dacoities,'' Inspector General of Police (Railways) Sudhakar S Suradkar told The Indian Express

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Normally, he observed, 90 per cent of the cases involve property crimes like chain-snatching, bag-lifting or pick-pocketing either aboard the trains or on the railway platforms. Traditional methods like utilising services of the dog squad, finger print experts or nakabandi have been found less effective owing to various reasons.

Over a period of time, the victim too tends to forget the description of the culprit which further compounds the problems in detecting a case, he said.

With the provision of a dossier at railway police stations, it has become easier for the victims to identify culprits--in case the latter happens to be from the same lot--while their memory is fresh about the crime.

Superintendent of Nagpur Railway Police Vineet Agarwal pointed out that the train dacoity near Bhusaval on September 9 in which a gang of five men relieved the passengers of valuables worth Rs 4,900, was detected through this method after the victims were able to identify the culprits from the dossier available with the GRP at Bhusaval. Another train dacoity near Jalamb was also detected through a similar method and the GRP was able to nab the offenders in both the crimes, Agarwal said.

When asked about crime-prone areas, Suradkar observed that the situation differed from place to place. For instance, the Daund-Solapur section was more prone to train dacoities while pick-pocketing was more pronounced in the local trains of Mumbai. Nagpur, Kalyan and Bhusaval were prone to offences of bag-lifting. In fact, Kalyan which falls under the Pune railway district, has become more trouble-prone vis-a-vis railway crimes after the emergence of the Konkan Railway, he said.

Efforts were also on to bridge the gap between GRP and railway travellers who often complain of undue hassles. Blank First Information Report (FIR) forms are now provided to the armed police escorts on the train as well as the guard and the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) to enable passengers record their complaints on the train itself. The exercise is aimed at reducing the trouble they often go through in lodging complaints at railway police stations, Suradkar said.

The IGP spoke for greater awareness among the victims of railway crimes as regards to their rights in the process of investigations. A victim can always demand a copy of the investigation report which the GRP furnishes to the court and plead for necessary action if he or she is unsatisfied with the probe, he pointed out.

Talking about constraints facing the GRP, he observed that the force had been functioning with handicaps like inadequate manpower and increased bandobust duties especially during festival seasons and VVIP visits.

As such, it is practically impossible to provide armed escorts on board every other train. ``We have to work according to priority and deploy our escorts on trains which are generally prone to offences,'' he said.

Despite these constraints, the GRP has initiated several measures to check railway crimes which include launching a special drive against unauthorised hawkers aboard the trains and monetary incentives to GRP personnel.