Man who robbed Mumbai local railway announcer’s purse held

The officers from personnel luggage theft (PLT) team of the railway protection force (RPF) arrested a 38-year-old man on Sunday, who allegedly robbed a railway announcer’s purse from her office in Ghansoli, last week.

According to RPF officers, on April 21, Sharmila Gurunath Madvi, 29, was making regular announcements about the arrival of trains, when Santosh Jadhav came into her office, with a black bagpack, at 11.30am.

Jadhav told Madvi that there had been an incident on platform number three and the commotion caused by it could lead to a stampede. He also told her that the station master had called her to the spot.

Madvi immediately rushed to platform number three. However, when she returned to her office, she found that her purse was missing. On April 22, she approached the Vashi Government Railway Police station and registered a complaint against an unidentified man.

“When I went to platform number three, I did not find any commotion there. I suspected foulplay and ran back to the office. My purse, which had Rs8,500 and other identity documents was missing,” said Madvi, in her complaint to the Turbhe PLT team.

The PLT team of RPF learnt about the complaint and began scanning the CCTV recordings of the station, when they spotted a man lurking around the announcement room.

“The CCTV footage showed Jadhav putting a purse-like object in his bagpack,” said an officer from the Turbhe PLT team.

On Sunday, while keeping a watch on the live CCTV, they spotted the suspect on platform number one at the Turbhe railway station.

The PLT officer, Kishan Singh and his team reached the spot and nabbed him.

They arrested Jadhav, who works at a private firm in Vashi. The RPF officers have handed him over to the Vashi GRP for further interrogation.