Tags:
Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, MARCH 18: Sarita Sahadev Chowgre, a woman constable with the Anti-Narcotics Cell of the city police, was threatened at knife-point in the ladies second-class compartment of a Dombivli-bound train at 8 am on Thursday morning.
The case could so easily have become a horrific echo of the Jayabala Ashar incident but for a stroke of luck. When the lone knife-wielding robber attacked Sarita who was alone in the compartment and demanded that she surrender her watch and eighty rupees, she did so without protest. But when the robber jumped out of the train at Sandhurst Road, he landed bang in front of a head-constable of the Government Railway Police (GRP). Rajbir Singh Lare Singh, the 19-year-old robber, was caught by head constable Vikas Sonawane after a brief chase.
Rajbir Singh, a pickpocket who stays at Masjid railway station, had bought a knife for Rs 15 last week after he found pickpocketing difficult. This morning he jumped into the second-class ladies compartment of a Dombivli-bound local at Masjidstation. Chowgre was the lone passenger in the compartment. Using his newly-purchased weapon he threatened the cop into giving him Rs 80 and her watch worth Rs 500. As the train pulled into the Sandhurst Road station, Chowgre started screaming that she had been robbed. Unnerved by this, Rajbir jumped out of the train onto the platform and started running.
Unfortunately for him, Sonawane was keeping a vigil on the platform at that time. He chased the robber and overpowered him, and thus accomplished a very rare feat for the GRP – catching thieves red-handed. The watch and the money were recovered from Singh on the spot.
Singh had come to Mumbai from Mathura three years ago and worked in a hotel near Kalyan for a year. Shortly after he was thrown out, he took to pickpocketing, only to be caught by the Kalyan police and sent to jail for six months. He had just come out after serving his term when he tried his hand at robbery.
The catch has earned Sonawane more than praise – an award of Rs 1000 has beendeclared in appreciation for his efforts.
