Youth Drugged-Robbed off Valuables on Train
A youth by the name Clifford Veigas hailing from Bantwal was drugged and his valuables stolen while traveling on Matsyagandha Express – he had boarded the train at Panvel-Maharashtra state and was heading to his hometown, Bantwal.
Mangaluru: Among the many ways that culprits try to rob train passengers, one of which is Tampering with food or drink : It is really unfortunate but sometimes shopkeepers refill bottled water with tap water and then glue the lid back on! For this reason, it’s super important to always inspect bottled water before purchasing. Even fruits like watermelons, pineapple etc are sometimes injected with sugar water so that they are heavier and therefore more valuable. Lastly, there are stories of people putting drugs in food items and then offering it to tourists on a train for example and then stealing all your belongings. The moral of the story with all these horrible scams is to be extra careful about eating and drinking and only go to trusted vendors or restaurants and never accept food from strangers.
Here is a story where a youth, Clifford Veigas hailing from Bantwal travelling from Panvel (Panvel is strategically located on the eastern side of the Mumbai-Bangalore National Highway (NH-4) and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway) to Mangaluru by Matsyagandha Express was drugged by a small gang. Clifford was traveling alone, and as per information received by railway police, a group of 4-5 persons befriended Clifford on the train and offered him biscuits. Other than this information, police are yet to get a detailed report from Clifford once he recovers.
Say “No” to strangers offering you biscuits or any food items
Clifford gave only a brief story to the railway police since he was not remembering anything more. Clifford is now admitted to a private hospital for further treatment, and the police are waiting to get more information once he recovers fully. A similar incident had happened on 23 July 2016, when Hotelier Sunil Shetty, a native of Karkala in Udupi district, residing in Mumbai travelling in the Matsyagandha Express in a sleeper coach was drugged and robbed of his valuables worth Rs 1,65,000, consisting gold chain, five rings, bracelet, Rs 5,000 cash, ATM cards and couple of mobile phones.
It’s very painful and shocking to see how we have people in our society who don’t think twice before drugging an unsuspecting person and robbing his valuables!!!! They have absolutely no moral conflict in doing this to another individual. I’m glad that this young man is alive and I wish him a full recovery.
Sometimes I wonder if we as a society are corrupt to the core!! Otherwise, how do you explain those reports after reports of our people walking away with chicken, sugar, petrol or other valuables from trucks met with accident on highways? These are not politicians or mafia gangs. These are ordinary folks and they find absolutely no moral conflict in stealing stuff!! In my own eyes, I have seen how entire families try to steal from trucks near goodinabali (panemangalooru). Our media report these incidents as if they are reporting some funny incidents. No moral conflict at all.