Globe-trotting ‘hotelier’ by day, a train thief by night

Shahul Hameed, 39, has been the director of a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, along with his wife, but there is a catch. He would steal from train passengers in Tamil Nadu and with all the accumulated loot, funded a hotel worth Rs 1 crore in Malaysia, Railway Police said. Hameed

has also visited 11 countries in the past and can speak six languages.

Explaining his modus operandi, police said that Hameed would usually introduce himself as CEO of a company and distribute visiting cards to co-passengers. “He would flash expensive mobile phones and laptops while travelling in AC first and second class compartments using reserved tickets to win their confidence and later rob them at nights when they were asleep,” an officer said.

Railway police decided to take cognizance of the thefts after some of his victims turned out to be VIPs, including MLAs and ministers, travelling on Blue Mountain Express and Pandian Express. “We had deployed police personnel in mufti for one month on different trains before finally zeroing in on the suspect,” C Sylendra Babu DGP, Railways, noted.

On May 7, the police questioned a ‘decently dressed’ man at Central Railway station on suspicion. They were sure of him being the man they sought after he gave contradicting statements. He was taken into custody for further questioning when he revealed his true identity. The Government Railway Police recovered 110 sovereigns of gold jewellery from him, which he had looted from at least 29 passengers. Police also found that Hameed lived in Malaysia with his wife Sahana and two children. He came to India by flight. “He would come to the station at least an hour before train departure and found his primary targets, who were usually women,” said the DIG, Railways, V Balakrishnan. He sold the stolen jewellery in Mumbai and Thrissur. Hameed also conducted fashion shows with models from Algeria, France, Netherlands and Uzbekistan besides running a fake international job consultancy firm.