Bhubaneswar, April 14: A 56-year-old police constable was allegedly drugged and looted inside a running train near Bhubaneswar late last night.

K. Durga Rao, a constable with Chhatrapur police station in Ganjam, was found lying unconscious on the road outside platform No. 4 of Bhubaneswar railway station in the early morning today. A police control room van of Laxmi Sagar police station soon admitted him to Capital Hospital.

The police said that Rao was coming to Bhubaneswar from Chhatrapur. In the train, he developed friendship with two strangers. Later, both of them offered him tea and Rao fell unconscious after drinking the tea.

Rao also told the police that the goons had stolen Rs 5,000 cash, a mobile phone and his other belongings. A complaint in this connection has been filed with the Laxmi Sagar police station. Rising number of drug and loot cases from running trains has become a major concern for passengers and railway officials as well.

On March 21, goons had drugged a 35-year-old woman and decamped with her gold ornaments and other assets worth around Rs 50,000. The woman, Laxmi Parida of Rasulgarh, was drugged while returning to Bhubaneswar from Ganjam in train. Similarly on March 8, a 25-year-old person was looted while he was coming to Bhubaneswar in train. Though most of these cases are not reported to the police, an official in the Government Railway Police Station in Bhubaneswar said that around 50 such cases were registered in the last three months. “Such cases are taking place on a regular basis. The goons are now travelling with proper train tickets,” said Susant Meher, a passenger.

However, an official of the East Coast Railway said that they had been conducting repeated awareness drives among passengers at Bhubaneswar railway station asking them not to take food from any stranger on train.

“Besides, we are also making frequent announcements on railway platforms cautioning passengers not to take food and drink from strangers,” said a senior official of East Coast Railway.

On April 7 last year, the Government Railway Police and the Railway Protection Force had arrested 10 members of a gang that used to loot by drugging passengers on trains and platforms. The police had also seized many stolen goods and a huge cache of Lorazepam, a sedative, from their possession.