Pregnant mobile thief thrashed, handed over to cops

Thane police on Monday arrested a 20-year-old pregnant Dadar resident, Vaishali Vinod Jadhav, for stealing three mobile phones on trains between Bhandup and Mulund railway station. The woman was caught by a woman passenger who thrashed her and handed her over to the Thane GRP police. The case was then transferred to the Kurla GRP. 

The woman, who hails from Solapur, had been staying with her family in Dadar for the past few years and was unemployed. This was the first time she was caught, said a Kurla GRP officer. 

Police said that on Sunday evening, the accused was on a Thane-bound local which halted at Bhandup station. Here, the accused stole a co-passenger cellphone worth between Rs 5,000 to 10,000. At the next railway station, the accused tried to steal another cellphone from a co-passenger's hand bag, but this time she was caught by the woman between Bhandup and Nahur railway stations. The woman asked her to hand over the cellphone, but the accused denied having it. She was then thrashed by the other woman. When the train reached Mulund railway station, the police were informed and the accused was detained.

A Kurla police officer said, “We have registered a case under section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code. We are investigating the case with her and have send the woman to hospital for a medical exam, because she is pregnant. We have recovered three cellphones from the woman, which range in price from Rs. 5,000 to 25,000. Two cellphones are of the passengers who were travelling (with the accused) and one cellphone belongs to some one else.”