Mumbai: A woman commuter was robbed by a transgender at ‘gunpoint’ on Thursday morning - the ‘pistol’, used to threaten the commuter, turned out to be a toy. The incident occurred in the last ladies compartment of a Virar local.
On getting complaints about the loot, the Government Railway Police immediately swung into action and arrested the accused on Friday. The accused has been identified as Parfull alias Abhisek Panchal, 22, a resident of Khar Road. Panchal had earlier been arrested by the Andheri GRP in 2019 for extorting passengers at knife-point.
Confirming the development, Senior Inspector Anil Kadam of Borivli GRP said, “The accused has been booked under sections 386 and 354 of the Indian Penal Code for extorting by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt and assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty and Rs 4,000 recovered from the possession of accused. Further investigation is on. The accused will be produced in court on Saturday”.
The victim, Nisha Mahesh Watare, a flower merchant from Bhiwandi, said, “As usual, I boarded the ladies compartment from Dadar, and there were three or four women in that coach but when the train left Andheri, the accused suddenly pointed a gun at me and took away my purse forcefully.”
“I was very scared because I had over Rs 50,000 in my purse for business purposes, but luckily the transgender didn’t check the inner side pockets of the purse and returned it after taking Rs 4,000 from the front pocket. Apart from that, the accused also stuck his hand into my blouse and took away Rs 20, which I had kept aside for rickshaw fare and got down at Borivli,” Watare told the FPJ on Friday. Watare generally travels by train from Dadar to Vasai, after which she changes trains to proceed from Vasai to Bhiwandi. After the incident, Watare silently shot a short video of the accused, which proved helpful in cracking the case.
The incident left her shaken as she returned home because she needed to make another trip to Borivli again for personal work later in the day. While returning from Borivli in the evening she told other commuters about the incident that morning. “In the evening, I was in the same coach as the woman and when I heard her story, I asked her why she hadn’t registered a complaint with the GRP,” said Pooja Katti, a passenger activist from Nallasopara. “After that, I immediately informed the GRP control room about the incident and asked the woman to register an FIR with the GRP,” said Katti, who also shared with police the video of the accused that had been recorded by the victim.
“On getting information from the control room about the incident, we immediately started looking for the accused and located a few suspects by Friday morning,” said an officer investigating the case.
“After getting a formal complaint from the victim, we arrested the accused and also recovered the money, which will be handed over to the woman after completing the legal procedure,” officials said.
