Mumbai Crime: Cops bust gang of govindas that robbed train passengers

All Illustrations/Uday Mohite

Masterminds Nitin Kale and his father Suresh Kale run a gang of 10-12 railway robbers who snatch chains and phones from express train passengers.

After multiple police teams try and fail to identify the gang for nearly a year, PI Ajay Sansare from the Satara police decides to track phone usage at the crime scenes. As it turns out, the gang relies heavily on their phones. They use a train tracking app to figure out what time and where the next express train will arrive. They then use digital maps to figure out which road is close enough to make their escape.

The entire gang travels by car. The crooks park these getaway vehicles not more than 2 km from the tracks, so that they can make a quick escape. This speedy escape makes them hard to track.

The accused lie in wait for the train, and cut the wires of the railway signal with bolt cutters. The signal gets stuck on red, and the train is forced to halt.

The thieves then climb one on top of the other, much like Govindas on Janmashtami. Once this human ladder is tall enough to reach the train's windows, the accused reach inside and loot the unlucky passengers.

To silence the commuters and scare them into parting with their valuables, the crooks pelt stones at them. Most passengers are too afraid to tell the police anything. However, the joint efforts of the Satara Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police result in the arrest of three - Rohit Rarebhat (car owner), Vinod Jadhav(motorcycle owner) and Babu Kasbe. All three hail from Jamkhed. The police are on the lookout for the masterminds.

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