MUMBAI: A sessions court on Thursday convicted and sentenced a 27-year-old serial phone thief to five years’ imprisonment.
Dinesh Savariya, had pleaded guilty in mobile theft cases tried before the jail court and been sentenced to a few months in prison. The principal judge took into consideration his antecedents to award a five-year sentence.
In his statement to the court, the 25-year-old victim of the theft case tried by the sessions court said that he worked at a hotel in Lower
Parel and used to take a train from Mahim. He said he was targeted about 7.15 pm on October 7, 2016, when he was standing at the door of a train that had slowly begun moving from
Mahim station.
“At that time, a thief came from the platform and he gave a blow over my hand in which I was holding the mobile,” the victim submitted.
The victim said the phone fell on the platform and the thief picked it up and ran away. “Then I got down at Matunga railway station and returned to Mahim railway station,” the victim said.
He said in court that once when at Mahim he noticed the thief caught by the police. He approached the police officials and narrated to them the incident in which he had lost his phone to the man in their custody.
“The police then took me and the thief to Mumbai Central railway station. The police then asked the thief his name and he said Dinesh Savariya,” he said.
The victim said the police noted down the address of the accused and searched his person in his presence.
“They found my mobile phone in his right side pocket. The police showed me the mobile and asked whether the mobile was mine. Accordingly, I said yes,” the victim said in court.
Savariya’s modus operandi was to snatch phones from people travelling by train and then selling them off to second-hand stores. He was convicted of phonesnatching offences three times before the incident.
The public prosecutor submitted in court that once when the accused snatched the phone from a man, he fell into the gap between the platform and the train.
After his sentencing, Savariya was inconsolable. He requested a meeting with his family before going to jail.
(Representative image)