Balasore, Feb. 12: Railway police here have arrested seven criminals, including three transgenders, on charge of committing dacoity in a running superfast train last night.

The accused persons have been identified as Pankaj Yadav, Rakesh Yadav, Narendra Singh, Sambhuprakash Bhoi and the transgenders are Lovely, Ruksan and Ragini.

All of them are in the age group between 22 and 32 and residents of Sambalpur, Titilagarh and Jharsuguda.

These accused had robbed the passengers in the general compartment of the Chennai-Howrah Mail near Bahanaga rail station under the South Eastern Railway. After committing the crime the criminals pulled the chain and decamped with the stolen items.

The police said that after the criminals alighted from the train, they moved towards Khantapara on NH-5 and fled towards Bhadrak by a vehicle.

On receiving an alert, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel chased them and the criminals were arrested near Markona market in Bhadrak district.

The police seized Rs 69,000 cash, three knives, three watches, eleven cellphones and a screw driver from them.

RPF officer in-charge Azmin Mirza said: “Our station got an alert message as soon as the train’s chain was pulled in between Bahanaga and Khantapara stations.”

“We are verifying whether these people have any previous crime antecedents,” he said.

Another railway police official said: “The criminals used screw drivers to unlock the passengers’ suitcases. There have been information that the transgenders often commit nuisance with the passengers to help criminals in their crime.”