Mumbai: Railway cops recover foreigner's stolen bag in 6 hrs

A foreign national got her bag containing items worth Rs2.88 lakh in less than six hours after it was stolen from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). The case could be speedily solved owing to the quick and thoughtful action of the railway police. A 32-year-old woman, Radha Askok Sethi, from Rajasthan has been arrested in the matter.

On Wednesday afternoon, Rachel Jose, 32, from New Zealand was depositing her luggage at the CSMT clock room when one of her bags containing jewellery, mobile phone and laptop was stolen. “At around 12.30pm when she was checking her luggage in the clock room, one of her bags was stolen. After realising that the bag is missing, she immediately approached the Government Railway Police (GRP),” said the rail officials.

Swinging into action mode, the GRP along RPF personnel scanned the CCTV footage and spotted the suspect going out from the CSMT. Coming to know that the complainant's laptop has a location tracker, the cops started following Radha's digital trail. The tracker pinpointed her location in Panvel hence the team went there. However, by then, she boarded a train for Bandra terminus so the cops followed her there. By the time the cops reached there, Radha had already boarded the Bandra-Ajmer Express as shown in the CCTV footage.

The cops were quick to alert the GRP and RPF of Borivali station which is the next halt of the Bandra-Ajmer Express. Finally, the suspect was nabbed by 6pm the same day. However, she was arrested the next day as law bars apprehending women post evening.“As per law, she was served notice on Wednesday and arrested later on Thursday,” said CSMT GRP Senior Inspector MA Inamdar.

The railway police said that the suspect seems to be a habitual offender as he tried her best to dodge the cops but ultimately failed. Appreciating the quick action of the investigating team, GRP commissioner Quaiser Khalid declared a cash award of Rs10,000 for the cops.

Timeline:

12.45 pm

Cops get theft alert

1 pm

Scanning of CCTV footage begins

1.15 pm

Joint team of RPF, GRP starts hunt

2.30 pm

Suspect's location traced in Panvel

3 pm

Cops leave CSMT for Panvel

4 pm

Suspect moves to Bandra

4.10 pm

Cops starts for new location

4.50 pm

Team reaches Bandra, checks CCTV footage

5.05 pm

Spots suspect boarding express train

5.10 pm

Borivali GRP, RPF alerted

5.40 pm

Suspect nabbed with stolen bag