Gold ornaments lost and found in three hours

CHENNAI: Three hours after a family realised they had alighted from a Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) train at Chengalpattu without collecting their bag containing 25 sovereigns of gold ornaments, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel traced it 50 km away at Arakkonam on Wednesday evening.It all began after Rajendran, who hails from a village near Madurantatakam, alighted from the train along with his family at the Chengalpattu station at 4.45 pm. That was when they realised that they had forgotten to pick up their bag containing gold ornamen`zzts worth Rs 5.50 lakh from the luggage rack of the train. Rajendran had boarded the train at Madurantakam and was on his way to a wedding ceremony, which explains why the family was carrying so much jewellery. Shaken by the lapse in memory, Rajendran approached the RPF for help. He was in tears, recalls S R Gandhi, senior divisional security commissioner, Chennai Division, Southern Railway.Immediately, the RPF alerted their counterparts at Chennai Beach as the train had a scheduled halt at that station before rolling on to Vellore. RPF constables Sagayam and Venketesh, who were escorting the train from the Beach station, scanned every coach and located the baggage. They then informed officials at Arakkonam railway station. Time: 7.45 pm.There were smiles all round when the bag was handed over to its owner on Thursday.