A gang of five, who robbed and seriously injured a 19-year-old youth at Mahim railway station on Tuesday morning, was nabbed within two hours by the Mumbai Central railway police.
The victim, Arvindkumar Pandey, is a Surat resident, who was in Mumbai to take care of some personal affairs, and was scheduled to leave on Tuesday. He was spending Monday night at Mahim railway station before taking a train from Bandra on Tuesday.
Railway police officials said Mr. Pandey was sleeping near the booking office when he felt someone take away his luggage and woke up at around 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday. He saw a man running towards the end of platform number one with his bag, and gave chase.
“When Mr. Pandey reached the edge of the platform, four other men accosted him. They attacked him with bare hands first, and one of them then stabbed him with a sharp object, after which all the five fled. An injured Mr. Pandey managed to make his way to the station and was seen by police constable Jaideep Pawshe,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Deepak Deoraj, railway police.
Mr. Pawshe took Mr. Pandey to Sion Hospital and informed his superiors at Mumbai Central railway police station, after which inquiries were initiated.
“CCTV footage at Mahim station had captured some of the accused, and we showed stills of the footage to some of our informants. One of the accused was recognised by some informants as a local resident,” Mr. Deoraj said.
A team of policemen was sent to the residence of the suspect in Mahim, who was sleeping at the time. He was taken to the police station and questioned, after which he allegedly confessed to having participated in the robbery and revealed the identities and whereabouts of his four accomplices. They were all traced and apprehended within the hour.
The arrested accused have been identified as Ramzan Sheikh (21), Namdev Kasbe (21), Rahul Naidu (19), David Korna (18) and Ramesh Mallepang (19), all residents of the Mahim–Dharavi–Shahu Nagar belt. The police are currently checking their records to find out if the accused, who have been remanded in police custody, have a past police record.
