Kochi, 01 July (H.S.): The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has arrested three men in connection with the theft of nearly 500 metres of a defunct railway track from the high-security premises of the Cochin Port Authority (CPA) on Willingdon Island, cracking a case that had raised serious concerns over security within the port.

The arrested have been identified as Kochi natives Thajudeen and Afsal, and Chandrashekhar Malik, a migrant labourer. According to RPF officials, all three had previously worked at the Cochin Port on a contract basis, giving them detailed knowledge of the port's layout and vulnerable locations.

The breakthrough came when an RPF team led by Ernakulam South RPF Inspector Binoy Antony intercepted a rented truck on Aluva Market Road on Monday night. The vehicle was allegedly being driven by one of the accused and was found carrying around 400 cut pieces of the stolen railway track. Officials also recovered heavy-duty gas cutters believed to have been used to slice the steel rails into smaller sections for transportation.

Subsequent searches conducted by the RPF along NDA Road in Kalamassery led to the recovery of additional portions of the stolen railway track concealed beneath thick bushes at two different locations.

Investigators said the accused had planned to transport the cut iron rails to scrap dealers in Tamil Nadu. The railway property had been cut into manageable pieces to facilitate transportation, but the consignment was intercepted before it could be moved out of Kerala.

The three accused were produced before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, which remanded them to judicial custody.

The theft had triggered separate investigations by the Cochin Port Authority and railway authorities after the disappearance of a 500-metre stretch of track from a restricted area near Q9 Berth.

The stolen line was part of a disused railway siding that once carried coal from the port's Q9 Berth to the Hindustan Newsprint Limited (HNL) plant at Velloor. Though the line had remained abandoned for years and was overgrown with vegetation, officials noted that dismantling and removing such a large stretch of steel track would have required careful planning, specialised equipment and considerable time.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman