Mumbai Crime: Tattoos on body help GRP identify thief

The tattoos on a body found dismembered between the railway tracks near Santacruz on October 15, helped the Borivli GRP identify the person as a thief who targeted long-distance trains. It was around 7 am, when the police learnt that a man had been mowed down by Churchgate-bound local train. Bandra Government Railway Police (GRP) officials found a broken mangalsutra, a pendant, two gold rings, two cell phones and cash of Rs 1.50 lakh with the body.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Pradeep Chavan formed a team including Assistant Commissioner of Police, Bandra (GRP) division Surekha Kapile; Senior Inspector Vilas Chougule; Sub-Inspector Dattatrey Gite and others to conduct a thorough investigation.

The police suspected the person was a thief active in long-distance trains. They called the numbers stored in the cell phones found in his possession. One Ashraf Baba responded to one call and said he had been travelling in the Aravali Express from Ajmer to Bandra terminus on October 15 when someone stole his wife's handbag containing two gold rings and a Samsung cell phone. He had registered an FIR at Bandra railway station which was later transferred to Borivali GRP.

They called another number and found one Suresh Kantilal Nevada had been travelling with his wife from Ahmedabad to Borivali in the Gujarat Express on October 14, when someone stole her handbag. The case was registered at Borivali GRP, a GRP officer said.

The investigating team had learnt that the deceased was a thief and the challenge was to establish his identity. "There were three tattoos on his body. On his right hand he had a tattoo that said 'MOM' and on the left hand, 'MOTI'. The third tattoo, stars, was on his back. After the post-mortem, we circulated his picture among informers," the officer added.

"Later we fed his basic details including the description of his tattoos on our internal database and found that his name was Moti Shankar Pawar. He had committed several serious offences in long-distance trains. Many cases against him are registered with Valsad GRP," said the officer. Pawar, in his early 30s, was a native of Solapur district in Maharashtra and had been committing thefts in express trains for years.

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