‘Plain reflex cost my husband his arm’: Doc says day after freak robbery bid on train

MUMBAI: Dr. Yogesh Deshmukh lost his left hand after he and his wife fell from a train while resisting a purse snatcher during a robbery attempt.

MUMBAI: It all happened in a flash, said Dr Dipali Deshmukh, whose husband Dr Yogesh Deshmukh lost his left hand after they both fell off the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Nanded Special train in the early hours on Thursday. A robber tried to snatch Dipali’s purse when the train was between Bhandup and Kanjurmarg, but since it was secured tightly around her hand, she got dragged till the door, her husband following her – the robber then jumped off the moving train, pulling the couple down behind him.

Representative Image (AFP)

“There was only ₹5,000 in my purse, but I did not let go of it as everything transpired within seconds,” the 44-year-old Dipali said, sitting beside her husband in Fortis Hospital, holding her tears as she watched him without his left arm. “It was a plain reflex which cost my husband his arm.”

Dipali and Yogesh Deshmukh, 50, were travelling to Latur with their daughter Shraddha, 9, when the incident occurred around 3.50am on Thursday. They were fast asleep when Dipali felt someone touching her.

“I woke up and looked at the man in front of me trying to pull my purse. Since I had wrapped the strap around my arm and held my purse tightly under my elbow, I did not let it go even as the robber pulled me,” she said.

“He is a doctor who lost his arm due to a senseless robbery bid,” said Dipali. “Whatever happened to us should not happen to anyone else.”

The Kurla government railway police (GRP) later registered a robbery case against the unidentified accused based on the couple’s complaint. By Friday, the police had prepared a sketch of the accused based on Dipali’s description.

“The robber’s back was towards her and it was dark, so she could not see his face clearly,” said Sambhaji Yadav, senior police inspector, Kurla GRP. “But we have prepared a sketch of the robber based on the description of his looks, height and body type.”

The robber was likely a habitual offender, said Yadav. There are no CCTV cameras installed on the tracks between Bhandup and Kanjurmarg, where the robber jumped off the moving train, he said. “But there is only one exit point along the tracks and we are checking the CCTV footage of the area to ascertain the identity of the robber,” said the officer.

The police were also showing Dipali photos of habitual robbers to check if any of them were involved, he added.