RPF patrol teams

commuters

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Passenger Luggage Theft

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Above left: Cops have been posing as truckers and hawkers to nab the culprits

RPF’s undercover teams help bring down the thefts on WR’s network.Undercoverdeployed on the Western Railway’s network have helped bring down crimes by ‘phatka gangs’ by a staggering 88 per cent this year. In January, trainreported 69 cases of thefts and muggings by the gangs. This month, the figure has dropped to three.Phatka members climb poles and walls beside the tracks and hit commuters standing or sitting on footboards of slow-moving locals to grab their belongings, mostly mobile phones. In some cases, startled commuters suffered injuries after falling off compartments while trying to protect their valuables. After a litany of complaints, the RPF started sending out cops in plain clothes to keep a watch near rail sections and isolated spots close to stations.Officers have been posing as ordinary citizens, from truckers to hawkers, to nab the culprits. The tactics have proved to be quite successful with many suspects being chased down and booked immediately after the commission of the so-called hitand-run thefts.A topsaid that 75 per cent of the cases occurred on the Mahim-Bandra, Bandra-Khar, Santacruz-Khar, Andheri-Vile Parle and Kandivali-Borivali sections. The Mahim-Bandra stretch topped the list. But after the introduction of undercover RPF teams and similar efforts by the Government Railway Police, the instances have decreased.The special GRP squads are called ‘’ teams. Each unit comprises two assistant police inspectors and four constables, including two women.“In January, 69 cases involving phatka gangs were registered in the suburban section of Western Railway. The following month, the figure fell and the trend continued in March, April, May and June, as plain-clothes officers staked out the areas near stations and railway lines,” AK Singh, the principal chief security commissioner on WR, told Mirror. “In July, eight cases were recorded. Our objective, though a bit ambitious, is to bring down the figure to zero.”Singh said RPF teams had chased down and arrested several suspects. “The suspects usually climb poles along the tracks and hit commuters with a stick, causing them to drop their mobiles and bags. We have been keeping a watch at all such spots,” Singh said.The Central Railway (CR) also deployed security personnel in plain clothes at various locations. Sachin Bhalode, the senior divisional security commissioner of CR’s Mumbai division, said teams were patrolling the areas between stations round the clock. “Additional personnel have been deployed at locations where a high number of cases have been reported,” he said.Officials have also been announcing safety tips at stations. “We have found that commuters are being threatened by some phatka gangs. We are trying to create awareness about the precautions commuters can take and how they can report an incident,” an RPF officer said.Cops urged commuters to not keep quiet fearing hassles and call them if they had been targeted. “Sometimes people’s phones are stolen and we recover them immediately. But they tried to avoid filing a complaint because they don’t want to go through the paperwork and submit their phones in court as evidence,” the official said. “They end up giving the culprits a lifeline by later claiming later that they accidentally dropped the phones.”