Six persons accused of robbing a goods’ train motorman were acquitted on Wednesday after contradictions regarding the identification of the real accused in the testimonies of the motorman and his assistant were highlighted by the defence.

According to Wadala railway police, the accused had, on August 17, allegedly decamped with valuables worth Rs 17,000 while the motorman Bhanwarlal Ramswarup, was waiting in his goods train laden with coal on a signal between Kingcircle and Wadala stations. The police alleged that at 2.25 am, six men jumped into the engine driver’s compartment with sharp weapons and looted him.

Initially, Ramswarup thought them to be railway workers who wanted to be dropped somewhere. One of them, however, kept a chopper on his neck and asked him to hand over all his belongings. Ramswarup’s assistant was also threatened and the men decamped with a gold ring, watch and cash worth Rs 17,000.

A complaint was subsequently lodged with Wadala railway police and six men were rounded up. They were all booked for robbery under section 395 of the Indian Penal Code. When the matter came up for trial before judge M R Deshpande, the prosecution failed as Bhanwarlal and his assistant could not agree on which accused had threatened them with a chopper.

While Bhanwarlal said it was a man called Peeraswamy, his assistant named Azad Ansari as the culprit. Owing to this contradiction, the court held that the prosecution had not been able to establish the role played by the accused and acquitted all of them.