In a dramatic turn of events, a notorious mobile thief named Tulsidas Rathod, aged 30, was arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Wardha late Wednesday. Rathod, who had been targeting railway passengers, allegedly conned Manju Bharadwaj out of Rs 8 lakh by pretending to be an official from the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
Rathod’s scam was discovered after he stole Bharadwaj’s mobile phone from the GT Express at Balharshah Station in November. Posing as an RPF inspector, Rathod convinced Bharadwaj to send her Aadhaar card to “recover” her phone. He then used the Aadhaar details to access her accounts and made transfers to various people, eventually siphoning off a total of Rs 8 lakh.
After months of investigating, the police arrested Rathod in Chandrapur, where he admitted to committing several similar thefts, though only five phones were recovered from his possession. Rathod’s illicit gains were spent at a casino in Goa, according to his confession.
The police had initially been unable to connect the fraud to Rathod until they recovered the stolen phone, which led them to the discovery of the financial scam. The GRP continues to investigate Rathod’s other activities, under the leadership of Assistant Inspector Harshal Chaple.
