Bhopal, Nov 9 : Five people were arrested in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly robbing train passengers after offering them drug-laced food, police said Monday.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) also found eight passengers in unconscious condition in Guwahati Express train from which the five accused were arrested, RPF Commandant (Jabalpur) Sumati Shandilya said.

Besides offering drug-laced food to the passengers, the accused also used to render the passengers unconscious by placing a wooden stick soaked in some chemical near the nose of the sleeping passengers and rob them in long-distance trains, Shandilya said.

The arrests came after a lady passenger, Shaukat Ali, travelling in Guwahati Express train, told the RPF personnel that her husband became unconscious after eating food given by a co-passenger near Pipariya station.

The passenger also identified the person who had given the food to her husband.

On interrogation, the accused, identified as Rizwan, 25, told the RPF about his other accomplices who too were travelling in the same train and all of them were arrested.

The others arrested are Junnaid, 26, Salauddin, 30, Anwar, 23, and Kartik, 30.(IANS)