Nagpur: In a major breakthrough, the Nagpur Railway Police apprehended an interstate gang of four women who were involved in stealing valuables from commuters at crowded railway stations. The arrests were made following two back-to-back thefts reported on May 4 at Platform No. 7 of Nagpur Railway Station.
In the first case, Neha Aman Wankhede, a resident of Hudkeshwar, Nagpur, lodged a complaint (Crime No. 181/25 under Section 303(2), 3(5) of the Railways Act), stating that an unknown thief opened the chain of her handbag while she was exiting the station after traveling from Dhamangaon to Nagpur. The accused stole a small purse inside her bag, which contained a 7-gram gold mangalsutra worth ₹55,000 and silver anklets worth ₹1,500 — totaling ₹56,500.
In the second incident (Crime No. 182/25), Arun Poonamchand Kotecha, a resident of Gandhiputla, Itwari Road, Nagpur, reported that while he and his wife were boarding a train to Nashik from Platform No. 7, a group of suspicious women opened his wife’s handbag and stole ₹40,000 in cash from a small purse inside.
Acting swiftly on the instructions of Superintendent of Police Dr. Priyanka Narnaware, Senior Police Inspector Gaurav Gawande, along with the detection branch and other officers, launched an investigation based on the victims’ descriptions. Four women suspects were located in the station premises and detained with the help of women police personnel. During questioning, the suspects initially tried to evade the charges but later confessed to both thefts.
The stolen gold mangalsutra, silver ornaments, and stolen cash — which had already been distributed among the group — were recovered during the interrogation and seized as evidence.
Upon further inquiry, the accused revealed they often used their two small children as cover while committing such thefts. All four women hail from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, and confessed to having carried out similar thefts at railway stations in Hyderabad, Chennai, Tirupati, Raipur, Bilaspur, and Delhi.
They were produced before the court, which remanded them to judicial custody till May 17. They have been lodged at the Nagpur Central Jail.
The operation was conducted under the guidance of SP Dr. Priyanka Narnaware, Additional SP Dattaram Rathod, and Sub-Divisional Police Officer Pandurang Sonawane. It was executed by PI Gaurav Gawande and his team, including Sanjay Patle, Pushparaj Mishra, Chandrakant Bhoyar, Bhalawe, Azhar Ali, Amit Trivedi, Pravin Khawse, Vishal Mishra, Amol Hingane, Dhammapal Gavai, and the RPF CPDS Team Nagpur.
