The Government Railway Police (GRP) on Sunday busted a gang of robbers who would target commuters travelling in the compartment reserved for those carrying luggage in the local train.
The Government Railway Police (GRP) on Sunday busted a gang of robbers who would target commuters travelling in the compartment reserved for those carrying luggage in the local train. The Special Task Force (STF) formed by the GRP arrested four people after receiving a complaint about a businessman being kidnapped from Tilak Nagar.
On April 1, the STF began investigation after receiving information about a garment merchant identified as Dinesh Darzi, 20, a resident of Khetwadi in Santacruz having been kidnapped when travelling in the train. Darzi was travelling with his commodities and got into the luggage compartment to Wadala on a harbour line local train. On reaching Wadala, he boarded another train headed to Vashi, when five persons boarded the coach and started making comments about how Darzi looked like a wealthy person.
They then allegedly forced him to alight from the train with them at Tilak Nagar and bundled him into a rickshaw and took him to Kher Nagar in Bandra (east). “The accused wanted money and hence took him to an ATM and asked him to use his debit card, withdraw money and hand it over to them. He stated that he did not know the pin number to the card and also alerted the security guard stationed at the ATM. Panicked, the robbers fled with his belongings which included his garments, phone and debit card all worth Rs 69,000,” said a GRP crime branch officer.
The arrested accused were identified as Rupesh Kembhavi, 23, Vali Shaikh alias Ali, 28, Khalid Varshi, 26 and Huzefa Fakri, 24. One of their accomplices is still absconding, said STF officials.
The Nirmal Nagar police, which first registered a case of theft, then transferred it to the Wadala GRP, who accessed the CCTV camera footage and developed the photographs of the accused. After identifying Shaikh, they tracked him down to Nalasopara and arrested him after laying a trap.
Shaikh then led them to the others, which led to the arrest of three more accused. The accused were produced before a railway court on Monday and remanded to police custody till Friday for further investigation.
