Thane: Bag-snatcher who led to woman's death nabbed

The Dombivli GRP have arrested a 27-year-old bag snatcher who led to 29-year-old Prajakta Gupta's death on the railway track near Kalyan last week. mid-day had reported on August 1 on how she was run over while trying to chase the thief who snatched her purse when she was at Kalyan.

The accused, identified as Sameer Shaikh, was arrested on Thursday from his in-laws residence at Nashik. An officer from Dombivli GRP said, "The statements of the two women witnesses who appeared later at the police station proved pivotal, as they even narrated the walking style of the accused, on the basis of which we started looking for history sheeters involved in bag snatching."

Following this they zeroed in on Shaikh and visited his Ulhasnagar residence. His mother revealed that he had been staying in Nashik at his in-laws residence. On suspicion, the GRP picked up Shaikh, who during the course of the investigations confessed to the crime. After the arrest of the accused, they have detected two more cases of bag snatching. Shaikh has been held before for bag snatching.

The accused has been booked under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of the Indian Penal Code while he was produced in court and has been remanded in police custody.

The incident
On July 30, a train had stopped at Patri Pool Bridge near Kalyan station, following which the accused snatched a bag from Gupta, who was standing near the door. This made her fall on the tracks. On getting up, she tried chasing the accused but stepped on the adjacent tracks and a CST-bound train ran over her. She was later admitted in Shastri Nagar General hospital where she was declared dead before admission.