Mumbai: Cab driver held for molesting minor, diverting route in Dadar

A 32-year-old cab driver has been arrested by Dadar Police for molesting a 14-year-old girl inside the cab. The cab driver also took the victim on a different route along the Eastern Express Highway.

The victim immediately informed her father, who then pressed the SOS button in the cab company’s application. The SOS button connected to emergency services and shared the cab’s live location, vehicle details, and contact number with the police control room.

A police officer said, “The cab was booked by the victim`s father from Dadar to Powai, and the girl was travelling alone at around 4:30 pm on Thursday. The control room alerted the local police, who traced the accused and rescued the girl.”

The accused was handed over to the Dadar Police and later arrested.

Mumbai: Woman holidays in city, robs train commuters

The Bandra Railway Crime Unit has arrested Laxmi Vinod Solanki, 34, for allegedly pickpocketing and stealing jewellery at railway stations in Mumbai. Police said, Laxmi’s husband, Vinod Solanki, was unaware of her crimes. 

Under the pretext of taking him on holidays to Mumbai, she would stay with him at a hotel in the city for 3-4 days and commit theft during peak hours on local trains, before fleeing to Delhi. 

Laxmi is a resident of Malkaganj, New Delhi. Two years ago, she married Vinod, who works with a private firm. Before their marriage, Laxmi had been arrested by the GRP in Vadodara, Gujarat, in a pickpocketing case, but was later released. Her husband was reportedly shocked to learn of her recent arrest. 

The police said the complainant, Mohanlal Shivlal Rajpurohit, 49, is a garment trader and resident of Borivli. Around 1 pm on April 29, Mohanlal went to drop off his wife Mamta and son Prayansh at Borivli railway station, as they were travelling to their village by express train from Vasai Road railway station. 

Mamta had kept jewellery worth R5 lakh, including a gold chain, mangalsutra, and gold earrings in her handbag. 

“While boarding the train at Borivli, Laxmi took advantage of the crowd, opened the victim’s bag, stole the jewellery, and escaped. The entire incident was captured in the station’s CCTV cameras.” When Mamta reached Vasai, she checked her bag and discovered the jewellery was missing. She immediately informed her husband, and they filed an FIR with the Vasai Road GRP.

During the investigation, police found that Laxmi had stayed at a hotel in Borivli with her husband, but after the theft, they fled to Delhi. A team from the Bandra Railway Crime Unit travelled to Delhi to locate the couple but failed to do so.

This article first appeared on Mid Day