22-year-old woman molested, robbed in a local train

A disturbing incident has been reported in Mumbai local train, where a 22-year-old woman was molested and robbed by a fellow passenger in the general compartment of the Western Railway. The incident took place on November 24. The same man earlier saved the woman from an armed chain snatcher and later robbed and molested her. 

The incident took place when the woman was travelling from her home in Bhayander to meet her brother in Kandivali. She climbed into the general compartment of a slow Churchgate-bound train at 11.44 pm from the Borivali station.

At that time, there was only one passenger in the train identified as 32-year-old Rahim Shaikh, asleep on a seat. According to police, as she boarded the train, another man identified as Omprakash Dikshit (32) followed the woman inside the train. He held a knife to her throat and demanded to hand over her gold necklace and cellphone.

As the women cried for help, the other passenger woke up and came to her rescue. Officials said that Shaikh hit the thief in the head and forced him to get out of the train.

The woman wrote in her report that Sheikh assured her that she was safe in the train and he was like her brother. However, as the train was about to leave the station, Shaikh called back Om Prakash inside the train.

Later, between Borivali and Kandivali stations, both threatened her at knifepoint. Shaikh touched the woman inappropriately and took away her necklace and cellphone, the police said. He managed to escape with the valuables while the woman raised an alarm, the policemen on duty at the station caught Dikshit. However, on November 26, the police arrested Shaikh as well.

Giving more details, Bhaskar Pawar, Senior Inspector of Police, Borivali Railway Police Station, said, “After scrutinising the CCTV footage and with the leads from it, we sent several teams across Kandivali in search of Shaikh. We found that he was a known drug addict and looked for him at public bathrooms in slums he was known to frequent,

According to reports, Rahim and Dixit did not know each other before. Rahim had only pretended to save the girl. After that he saw an opportunity to rob the girl, he joined hands with Dixit.