Superintendent of Nagpur GRP Vineet Agrawal has already been camping at Bhusawal to supervise investigations into the two train robberies.

In the wee hours of Tuesday, armed miscreants, numbering around five to seven, looted one of the passengers in the general compartment aboard the 8001 Dn Mumbai-Howrah mail while the train had just left the Bhusawal railway station and was passing the outer yard.

According to reports reaching here, the culprits, who were armed with sharp weapons like knives, also tried to rob other passengers but left in haste, snatching an Alpha-make suitcase from the passenger, Tulshiram Karange of Mumbra in Mumbai. The suitcase contained cash and clothes totally worth Rs 8,600, police said,adding that the incident occurred around 4.45 pm.

Around 8.45 pm the same day, yet another gang of robbers relieved ornaments and cash worth Rs 14,000 from two passengers including a woman, aboard the 7663 Manmad-Kachhipura Express between Jalna and Saoli railway stations.

A GRP patrol, on board the train, had to fire a couple of rounds from their 303 rifles while chasing the gangsters soon after the passengers raised an alarm. One of the culprits was apprehended while he rest managed to escape in the cover of darkness. The gangsters pelted stones at the police party while running away from the site, prompting the police to respond with fire, sources said.

According to details available here, some of the gangsters who had already boarded the train at a previous destination, had disconnected the hose pipes between two bogies to halt the train at a pre-designated spot between Jalna and Saoli.

Soon, they got into one of the compartments, along with their aides, and started snatching ornaments andvaluables from the passengers. A V G Rao of Defence Colony in Secunderabad and another passenger, Archana Aalandekar, lost a gold chain, a mangalsutra and other valuables worth Rs 14,000.