Mumbai – In a dramatic interstate operation, Dahisar police, with the help of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), arrested a 28-year-old chain-snatcher, Gayasuddin Shaikh, from a moving train just before he could escape to Bihar.
Shaikh had allegedly snatched a gold chain worth ₹80,000 from a senior citizen in Dahisar East on September 30. Immediately after the crime, he boarded the Dagrugarh Express to flee the city.
Shaikh, a native of Muzaffarpur, Bihar, was born in Palghar and lived with his family in Nalasopara’s Alkapuri. According to police, he is a repeat offender and was arrested earlier this year by the Vasai GRP in another theft case.
Following the robbery, an investigation team led by DCP Mahesh Chimate (Zone 12), ACP Maloji Shinde, and Senior Inspector Sarjerao Patil, began scanning over 50 CCTV camera footages from the crime scene and nearby railway stations. This helped them confirm Shaikh’s identity.
When police reached his home, he had already disappeared. A breakthrough came when technical surveillance showed his friend’s phone moving through Jalgaon and Bhusaval, indicating that Shaikh was travelling by train.
API Dipali Kharat, leveraging her previous experience with the GRP, coordinated with RPF teams, who eventually spotted Shaikh in a general coach of the train just before it reached Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh. He was detained and handed over to the Dahisar police.
Shaikh was brought back to Mumbai on October 2 and produced in court on October 3, where he was remanded to police custody till October 6.
As of now, the stolen gold chain has not been recovered. Police suspect that Shaikh sold it to a jeweller and are conducting raids in Nalasopara and surrounding areas.
Further investigation revealed Shaikh is a daily wage labourer who became addicted to drugs, which pushed him into crime. An officer disclosed that during a hospital visit, Shaikh was found to be HIV positive. His health deterioration and addiction led him to abandon work and turn to theft for survival.
