Durgapur, Aug. 24: A gang of 10 boarded a train in Burdwan around midnight and robbed passengers of cash and jewellery in about half an hour when no guard was present in the sleeper coach.

Around 12.30am on Sunday, the masked men with revolvers and daggers boarded Bananchal Express — it runs from Bhagalpur in Bihar to Hatia in Ranchi — at Chittaranjan in Burdwan.

As soon as the train started moving, they took out their weapons and began threatening the passengers.

“I was sleeping when somebody slapped my face. I woke up and saw a masked man pointing a revolver at me. He snatched my briefcase, which I was using as a pillow. Inside it were Rs 10,000 and my ATM card. They also took away my gold chain and two rings,” said Rajesh Singh, 40, a businessman from Bhagalpur who was bound for Ranchi.

The robbers hit Amardeep Singh, another passenger, with a dagger on the head. “I was attacked when I tried to pull the chain. They took away Rs 5,000, a cellphone and a gold chain from me,” said Singh, a businessman from Bhagalpur travelling to Dhanbad. He got two stitches on his head later.

The gang also assaulted five women when they refused to hand over their ornaments. “I was sleeping in the middle berth when one of the robbers tried to snatch my necklace and earrings. When I protested, he hit me in the right eye and on the jaw,” said Radhika Sharma, 32, a housewife from Jessidih, Deoghar. Her husband Rakesh’s ATM card, cellphone and Rs 8,000 were also snatched.

The robbers pulled the chain and got off when the train was nearing Kulti, a half-hour ride from Chittaranjan, but not a station where the Bananchal Express stops. They took away cash and valuables worth Rs 3 lakh.

Once at Kulti station, the passengers in the S-4 coach pulled the chain. They got off and protested in front of the stationmaster’s office against the lack of security. In an 18-coach express train, there should be four RPF jawans headed by an officer.

Kulti stationmaster Satya Narayan has reported the case to the Railway Protection Force and the Government Railway Police in Sitarampur, under which Kulti station falls. “The passengers lodged a complaint with me, which I have forwarded to the GRP and RPF,” Narayan said.

The RPF has denied a security lapse. “Unfortunately, the jawans were not present in that particular compartment at the time the robbers struck. They were patrolling other coaches. We have started an investigation,” said R.K. Singh, the assistant commandant of the RPF in Asansol.