Mumbai railway commuters lose valuables worth ₹5.25 crore in 6 months

The government railway police (GRP) have registered 2,654 cases between January 1 and June 30 this year

Suburban railway commuters in Mumbai have lost cash and valuables amounting to ₹5.25 crore to robbers and fatka gang members in past six months.

GRP commissioner Quaiser Khalid has instructed all GRP units across the city to register all bag missing cases as thefts (FIRs) and investigate them. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

The government railway police (GRP) have registered 2,654 cases between January 1 and June 30 this year. Those include 2,543 or 95% cases of thefts and robberies. However, the police have been able to solve only 907 cases, recovering stolen valuables worth ₹1.58 crore.

Experts said that in spite of CCTVs installed on railway premises, the crime rate has been increasing throughout the railway premises while the detection rate and recovery of the stolen property remain low. The GRP officers said that the soaring numbers of thefts and robberies and the low detection rate has left them concerned as the majority of such crimes are committed by youngsters between the ages of 16 years and 25 years or freshers who do not have any past record of committing any crime.

Police officers said that a maximum number of these robbers are not residents of Mumbai. These robbers arrive in Mumbai, commit the crime and flee back to their village, “The booty robbed by them is sold within just two to three days of the crime which makes it difficult to trace them and recover the booty,” said a GRP officer.

In the past two months, the GRP has registered 303 cases of bag lifting, which were earlier registered as missing cases and not investigated at all, amounted to a loss of property worth ₹1.12 crore. Out of these 74 cases have been solved by the police.

GRP commissioner Quaiser Khalid has since instructed all GRP units across the city to register all bag missing cases as thefts (FIRs) and investigate them.

Khalid said that the move was adopted on the lines of directives issued by previous GRP commissioner Nikhet Kaushik who had started registering mobile missing cases as thefts. The drive led to the recovery of several lost or stolen mobile phones, and arrests of thieves and robbers.

The GRP statistics revealed that in 2016 number of mobile phones robbery cases registered were only 1,590 however after the move by Kaushik in 2017 the cases rose to 18,000.

In 2018 the GRP recorded 32,476 mobile theft cases and in 2019, 24,010 cases were reported. Out of these theft cases in 2018 recovery was 2,517 mobiles and 2,130 robbers were arrested and in 2019 the recovery of mobile phones was at 2,319 and 3,000 robbers were arrested.

Based on this move, Khalid had come up with instructions to register all bag missing cases as thefts. “Normally when we register a bag missing case, it is not investigated and chances of getting the belongings were low however now when an FIR is registered, the officers will be compelled to investigate the case and recover the stolen booty,” said Khalid.

Khalid added that when a commuter forgets his bag or wallet or drops it by mistake in a train or railway premises, he would have to check the lost and found department of the terminal where the train concludes, “In case the commuter does not find his belongings there, he will have to approach the GRP police station and register a complaint of theft,” said Khalid.

Generally, when the commuter forgets his bag on the train, it is kept in the lost and found department by the railway staff such as cleaning personal or security, “However if the bag or wallet does not reach the lost and found department, it is assumed to have got stolen,” added Khalid.

The police officers will then check the CCTVs of railway stations where the commuter said he forgot the bag and track it till the last station or terminal where the train concludes its journey trying to locate the bag etc.