Snatching of mobile-phones from train passengers travelling on the footboard continues despite the crackdown by railway police. This year alone, Bandra Railway police caught 50 teenagers in connection with such thefts.

The latest incident was reported on October 29. A woman passenger, Mamta (name changed) boarded a train for Wadala from Andheri in the harbour line at 6.20 pm. As the train reached Bandra 20 minutes later, a man standing near the tracks hit her on the elbow making the phone fall from her hands near the tracks and he fled with it.

She told Newsline, “As there was no place inside, I was on the footboard. Near Bandra station, the train stopped. A boy about 20 years old hit my elbow with a rod and ran away with my phone that fell down. I complained to railway police at Bandra station and on October 30, complaint was lodged.”    

Ashok Surve Gandh, Senior Police Inspector, Bandra Railway police, said, “Police have lodged the complaint. From the IMEI number of the mobile phone, police can track it. This year, police caught around 50 teenagers indulging in mobile theft. Police have circulated pamphlets asking passengers not to talk on mobile phones while standing near the door of trains. But people do not listen. Such cases are increasing. Most of the teenagers who pose the problem are residents of slums near stations.”

Railway police sources said poor children from the slums hide behind the signal poles on the creek between Mahim and Bandra and the road underpass near Golibar area between Khar and Santacruz. When a train nears, they hit commuters making things like mobile phones and bags from their hands fall. The teenagers then collect them and run away toward the hutments near the tracks. They sell the stolen mobile phones for Rs 1,000 to Rs 5000 each.