Two days after an unidentified man attacked and robbed a 19-year-old medical student and pushed her off a moving train near Juinagar railway station, the police are yet to arrest the accused.
The Government Railway Police and the Railway Police Force have formed seven teams to nab the accused.
On Saturday night, 19-year-old Rituja Bokade alighted from the Trivandrum-Nizamuddin Express at Panvel. She boarded the women’s compartment of Panvel-Vashi train at 11.30pm. She was alone in the compartment when the man attacked her.
The woman, a Vashi resident, told the police that the man was well-dressed and he did not seem to be a professional criminal. “He first asked the woman if the train would go to Wadala station. He then attacked her,” said another GRP official.
After snatching her bag, earrings and two mobile phones, he pushed her out as the train was entering Juinagar station and fled. The woman sustained minor injuries and managed to board another train to Vashi where her father was waiting for her.
Her father, an advocate with Bombay high court, had told her he would receive her at Panvel. But, she had asked him to wait at Vashi.
Suresh Patil, senior police inspector of Vashi GRP, said, “The CCTV footage shows that the accused boarded the train at Seawoods. The footage of Juinagar station shows him running with a bag from the station premises, hiding his face. He probably knew where the CCTV cameras were installed. We suspect he’s a resident of Navi Mumbai or the peripheral areas.”
Patil said, “After jumping out from the train, the accused crossed the tracks and then went towards Sion-Panvel highway.”
The woman suffered injuries on her face as she fell on the platform. She was admitted to MGM Hospital in Vashi. “She also sustained injuries when the culprit snatched her earrings. On Monday, we performed a minor surgery on her face. She is fine now,” said a senior official from the hospital, wishing not to be named.
Inspector Patil admitted that the compartment in which Bokade was travelling did not have a guard. “Only one half of that compartment was for women. Constables are not deployed in such compartments. There were constables in the other three women’s compartment of the train,” he said.
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© 2017 the Hindustan Times (New Delhi)
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
