maharastra police:Nagpur railway police cracks CM wife's purse theft case

MUMBAI/ NAGPUR: The stolen handbag of Satvasheela Chavan, wife of chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, was retrieved by the government railway police (GRP) with the arrest of one person. Satvasheela was travelling in the Maharashtra Express when her handbag containing Rs 40,000 in cash, a cellphone and a debit card was stolen near Manmad on July 9. GRP officials have also detained one more person in the case and are probing his role.

Satvasheela's stolen handset provided important leads to the police. "We used latest electronic surveillance including cell site location tracing. All calls made from the handset in the period were scanned. Cellphone tracking was also done," superintendent of police (Nagpur railway) Yashasvi Yadav told TOI. "The IMEI technology was also used simultaneously to trace the stolen handset," he said.

Yadav, a tech-savvy officer and recipient of international award,

said that local crime branch team under him was put on the job after the sensational theft came to the fore.

The phone had been switched off and Satvasheela's Sim card had been replaced with a new one. "We are questioning the person in whose name the new Sim card was registered. He has been detained and we are probing the extent of his involvement," an official said. Most of the stolen valuables have been recovered.

GRP officials added that the prime accused appears to be a hardened criminal. "Items stolen from other passengers like laptops, cellphones and other valuables were also recovered. Unsolved past cases will be detected with this arrest," the official said.

"Offences on the railways are usually difficult to detect as long distances are involved and criminals don't have a fixed residence. The case was a big challenge to us," said Yadav, whose LCB team solved the theft in less than a week.

Satvasheela had boarded the Kolhapur-Gondia Maharashtra Express from Karad to visit a medical college in Jalgaon. She was travelling in one of the air-conditioned two-tier coaches. Two police guards were accompanying her. Nobody realised that her handbag was stolen till the train reached Manmad in Nashik district. Sources said when the cops dialled Satvasheela's stolen phone, someone answered the call but later switched it off.

The LCB team is likely to reach Nagpur in Geetanjali Express with the accused. It was the first major detection by railway police after IIT alumni Yadav took over the reigns of the Nagpur railway police recently and revived the dormant LCB unit injecting fresh lease of life into it.