Mumbai: The government railway police (GRP) are on the hunt for a teenager who they suspect to be behind two robberies at two different railway stations on Saturday night, within the span of 10 minutes.
Based on the description given by two victims to the police– one, who was robbed of her purse at Khar station and similarly the other victim too, who reported her purse to be stolen from the foot-over bridge at Prabhadevi, the cops are assuming that the perpetrator could be the same teenager, between the ages 13-15, who wore a pink raincoat while stealing their bags.
The police officers said that in the first incident, which happened at 10.40pm on Saturday, Meena Suresh Solanki (36), a resident of Malad left her house and reached Khar station, where she was supposed to meet her friend’s daughter. Solanki told the police that she was standing at the far end of the Khar station’s platform number 4, when a boy, wearing a pink raincoat approached her from behind and snatched her purse which was hanging on her shoulder.
As he pushed Solanki, she fell down, and hurt herself when she saw the boy jumping on the tracks and getting into the Churchgate slow train, which was headed towards Bandra. Solanki then raised an alarm but by the time the patrolling officers could reach her, the train had already left along with the minor accused. Solanki said that she had cash and her mobile phone worth ₹45,000 in her purse. The Bandra GRP has registered a case of robbery under section 392 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)and is scanning the CCTV to identify the robber.
Ten minutes later, Aarti Satpal Dhal reported a similar incident. Dhal, a resident of Bhandup was walking on the foot-over bridge from Prabhadevi towards Parel’s station platform number 1 to board a train to Thane after work when a boy in his teens approached her from behind and snatched her purse before pushing her towards the ground. Dhal told the police in her statement that as she managed to get hold of herself, she saw the boy in a raincoat fleeing away. “Dhal has told us that the boy seemed to be 15 years old and was wearing a raincoat. Dhal said that the boy ran ahead and jumped on the stairs after she saw him jump on the railway tracks before she raised an alarm; however, she could not see the colour of the raincoat,” said a police officer from Dadar GRP.
The police have registered a case under section 392 of IPC and are tracing the accused, “Although the two crimes occurred on two different railway stations, we suspect that it is the work of one boy who travelled between Khar and Prabhadevi stations and targeted women.”