In just two years, the number of children detained by the railway police for various crimes has nearly doubled, a clear impact of the stepped-up registration of petty crimes on trains and platforms. Most of these cases are related to bag-snatching, pick-pocketing and theft of mobile phones, committed by youngsters either waiting along the tracks for trains to slow down or on trains between stations.

Railway police officials say such thefts had earlier gone undetected, and even unregistered, since they used to register them as missing items rather than theft. Now, with an increased emphasis on registering of theft cases, these officials have found a sharp increase in the number of crimes committed by juvenile offenders.

According to railway statistics, 54 cases were registered against juvenile offenders in 2006 — 39 in the Central Railway and 15 in the Western Railway. In 2007, there were 58 cases — 38 in Central and 20 in Western. In 2008, there was a huge jump; 91 cases were registered — 46 in Central and 45 in Western.

Interestingly, most of the cases on Western Railways are related to mobile phone theft while pick-pocketing and bag-snatching are more common in the Central Railway.

“The number of juvenile offenders detained has risen drastically as we are now more vigilant against bag-snatching, pick-pocketing and mobile phone theft. Earlier, many of these cases were registered as missing items as opposed to theft cases. On investigation, we found that a lot of children are involved in these cases,” said Commissioner of Railway Police A K Sharma.

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