As the Rajdhani crept into Mumbai Central early last Monday, G S Bhasin entered the AC II coach to look for his sister Jaspreet Sethi (31). He found her in a semi-conscious state, robbed of cash and earrings worth Rs 9500. In the adjacent berths two others, Madhuri Sharma (35) and an unnamed male passenger, were drowsily groping around for their belongings.

The culprit who occupied the fourth berth was a thin, bespectacled man in his 30s, who introduced himself as a Baroda-based doctor when he boarded the train in New Delhi. Drawing the curtains covering the four berths in the second class, he laughed and chatted with the three other passengers.

``When the train approached Kota station, he suddenly produced a tray of tea and offered it to all of us,'' Jaspreet Sethi said. The threepassengers consumed the drug-laced tea.

``I felt drowsy and fell on my berth within minutes of drinking the tea,'' says Jaspreet, who has faint recollection of what transpired afterwards. Even as the three passengers slept their drug-induced sleep, the `doctor' leisurely robbed them behind the curtains.

In the six hours he had before alighting at Baroda, he ripped out the male passengers wallet, deprived the women passengers of their necklaces and earrings and broke open luggage for cash.

The three passengers remained undisturbed and their breakfast lay untouched when the train entered Mumbai. This has led Jaspreet Sethi to suspect the complicity of railway employees, possibly the attendants. ``Though the bedding and blankets are normally collected before the train enters Mumbai Central, nobody bothered to wake us up or even clear the breakfast trays. We would probably have ended up in the yard,'' she said.

The two women passengers were immediately admitted to the Nair hospital where they weredischarged after two days. A formal complaint was lodged with the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Mumbai Central only after they were discharged.

The modus operandi employed here isn't new, having been used by `Bikini Killer' Charles Sobhraj with great effect and is employed by thieves to drug and rob unwary people in running trains and buses all over the country.

But railway police say this has happened on the Rajdhani for the first time. ``It's a serious offence as an overdose of the drug could kill a passenger,'' said a Government Railway Police (GRP) official. The GRP has sent the case to Kota for further investigation.

Madhuri Sharma's uncle Devinder Sharma feels the railways should do away with the curtains altogether since passengers could even be murdered behind them without the rest of the train knowing about it.

``We frequently advise passengers through advertisements and announcements, not to accept food and drink from strangers,'' a Western Railway spokesperson said.