Mobile snatchers on prowl at city rly station

Jaswant Shetra

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 13

People visiting the Ludhiana railway station need to be alert as the station has witnessed a sudden spurt in snatching incidents over the past few weeks. In the past two weeks, around half a dozen incidents of mobile snatching took place in trains near the railway station.

According to sources, a gang of mobile snatchers are on prowl at the railway station. Gang members keep roaming in the trains and alongside the railway tracks, near the railway station, and whenever they get an opportunity, they snatch mobile phones from passengers and flee. Most of such incidents took places in moving trains, added the sources.

“On Friday, I was coming from Moga to Ludhiana. I was standing at train compartment gate holding my mobile phone. When the train reached near the railway station, someone hit my hand with a stick and my mobile phone fell on the ground. I noticed a youth running away after picking my mobile phone,” said Sumit, a passenger whose mobile phone was snatched near the Ludhiana railway station.

The sources further said the mobile snatchers board trains at the station and after snatching mobile phones from passengers, they jump out when the trains slowly speed up. Though the Railway Police have increased patrolling at the railway station to ensure the safety of passengers and prevent such incidents, still such incidents are taking place.

“These snatchers usually target elderly persons and women. The snatchers manage to jump out of moving trains after snatching mobile phones from women and elderly as they cannot chase them,” a GRP official said.