Six persons, including a minor, allegedly involved in robbing mobile phones of passengers aboard moving trains were arrested by a joint squad of the Railway Protection Force, Railway Police, and the Aluva police here on Monday.

The arrested are Siraj M., 26, Joswin Eldow, 18, Ashiq K. A., 21, Muhammad Fazal, 18, and Sheffin, 18. Allegedly, they were also behind the alleged theft of an iPhone from a passenger aboard Malabar Express near the Aluva railway station on Sunday.

As the train was chugging along a bridge shortly after leaving the station, the gang allegedly hit the passenger who was sitting on the footboard by the door with a long pole. Despite falling to the ground and injuring his hand, the passenger, identified as Suhail Shanavas, who was headed to Shoranur, reportedly fought the gang. But he was overpowered, and the phone worth around ₹75,000, a pair of wireless earbuds worth around ₹1,500, and ₹700 were allegedly robbed. The phone and other booties were recovered from the accused.

“The accused were substance abusers and were into robbery to finance their addiction. They normally targeted trains bound for north India convinced that passengers in transit were very unlikely to complain. They usually operated in the area near the Aluva railway station and targeted trains headed in the northern direction,” said Muhammad Haneef, RPF Security Commissioner, Thiruvananthapuram. It was the same point where the passenger was allegedly attacked on Sunday.

Incidentally, they also reportedly followed the same modus operandi with which they attacked the passenger. They targeted passengers sitting or standing near open doors on slow-moving trains just after leaving the station. They strike the hands of the targeted passengers to dispossess them of their phones. “They copied this modus operandi from north Indian gangs. However, it could even prove fatal at times as passengers could very easily fall on the tracks. The passenger who was attacked the other day was lucky to escape,” said Mr. Haneef.