Three arrested for taking money from migrants for train seats

Three men were arrested for cheating migrant labourers of their money by promising them travel passes to go to Bihar. The police arrested the three near Panvel railway station.

A group of 14 people was walking barefoot from Dapoli in Ratnagiri and reached Panvel on Friday, after covering over 175 kms in around 24 hours.

Another group of nine people had reached the railway station from Wadghar in Panvel.

The three approached the workers, seeing their desperation to get back to their hometowns. The accused told them they make travel passes for them to board the next train to Bihar. They demanded Rs1,000 for it.

“The accused accepted Rs1000 from one group. Before they could take money from others, our team present on the ground noticed it and caught the trio,” said Ajay Kumar Landge, senior inspector at Panvel city police station.

Hasan Sayyed, 45, Irfan Mahigir, 42, and Raghavendra Gupta, 33, were charged under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code, Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act and Maharashtra Police Act. While Sayyed is unemployed, Mahigir is a fruit seller and Gupta is a hawker. The police recovered Rs1,000 from them.

The police have registered the migrant workers for the next train to Bihar.