Train robbery: 21 passengers injured, Rs 2.5 lakh looted

File photo of Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee (unrelated to the story) in Kolkata. PTI

Lakhisarai/Kiul, Aug 6 (PTI) A large group of armed robbers struck the Sealdah-New Delhi Lal Quila Express today, fired at GRP personnel, assaulted passengers and looted them near Bhalui halt in Bihar's Lakhisarai district, leaving 21 people, including a jawan, injured.

Enraged over the incident, passengers, mostly kanwarias (devotees of Lord Shiva), shouted slogans and ransacked the office of the station master in Kiul.

Around 35 robbers boarded the train at Jamui station and walked into AC and sleeper coaches of the train and started looting cash and valuables, including jewellery and mobile phones worth Rs 2.50 lakh, from the passengers, official sources said quoting the FIR registered by six passengers.

As the unarmed GRP personnel resisted them, they opened fire critically wounding one of them. The jawan has been hospitalised at a nearby hospital, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Railway) R K Sharma said.