Man chases robber, identifies him from railway station footage, gets phone back

Platform to bylanes to police, commuter does it all to find 24-yr-old who fled after snatching his phone on train

MUMBAI: Losing a phone on a train from Byculla to Currey Road, chasing the 24-year-old robber, identifying him through the CCTV footage and getting him arrested within five hours – it was all in a day’s work for Kalyan resident Akshay Gaikwad, 29, on Wednesday. And the phone? He got it back on Thursday.

According to the government railway police (GRP) officers at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Gaikwad was travelling from Currey Road to CSMT. As he reached Byculla station around 1pm, he got a call from his manager on his phone worth ₹7,000 asking him to return to his office at Currey Road. In a rush, Gaikwad got off the train and boarded another one in the opposite direction, while still speaking to his manager.

As the train started to move, the man sitting next to him snatched his mobile phone and got off.

Quick to respond, Gaikwad got off the train within seconds and started to chase him. He ran after the man through the length of the platform, as dozens of commuters watched. “The two men just zoomed past us,” said Nihar Sethi, 25, a resident of Thane, who was waiting for a fast train on platform number three of Byculla station.

Gaikwad followed him out of the station for at least a km, but the man escaped in the bylanes. “I searched for long, but could not spot him,” said Gaikwad, Akshay Gaikwad sits in a train from Byculla towards Currey Road around 1pm, while talking on the phone. Rajique Altaf Shaikh, who is watching Gaikwad from the platform, sits next to him

Shaikh escapes in the bylanes who then approached CSMT GRP and registered a case against the unidentified robber. Gaikwad then accompanied the police officers to the spot and showed them the route through which the man fled. As the officers got the CCTV recordings of As the train starts to move, Shaikh snatches the phone from Gaikwad’s hand and gets off the running train Determined to catch him, Gaikwad goes back to the station, approaches the Government Railway Police, and scans the CCTV footage with them to identify the man

the area, Gaikwad sat with the police, and helped them find the accused.

“We identified the man as Rajique Altaf Shaikh, 24, who has been arrested several times since 2013. He was released from jail early this year,” said

Hemant Bawdhankar, senior inspector of CSMT GRP.

GRP and railway police force (RPF) officers traced Shaikh and arrested him from his house at Byculla. The police recovered Gaikwad’s mobile phone, which he was planning to sell, the next Gaikwad follows him, running through the entire length of the platform till the street outside Byculla station

By 6pm, Shaikh is arrested from his home in Byculla

day. “Shaikh has been arrested for theft and assault under sections 379 and 356 of the IPC,” said Bawdhankar.

“We are just grateful that Akshay didn’t suffer any injuries,” said Yojana Gaikwad, the commuter’s mother.

THE POLICE RECOVERED GAIKWAD’S MOBILE PHONE, WHICH HE WAS PLANNING TO SELL, THE NEXT DAY