Mumbai: A youth who fled with a bag containing ₹7 lakh in cash left behind on a Mumbai local train has been tracked down and arrested by the Railway Crime Branch’s Special Action Team in Vasai. The cash was stored in a white bag, which helped the police identify and trace the accused using CCTV footage from every station between Churchgate and Virar.

Surendrakumar Srivastava (67), a Kandivali resident, was carrying ₹7 lakh in cash to buy jewellery for his daughter’s wedding on May 15. He boarded a Churchgate-bound fast train from Ram Mandir station at around 4:15 PM.

However, upon learning via announcement that the train wouldn’t halt at Charni Road, he hurriedly got off at Mumbai Central — accidentally leaving behind the white bag containing the cash.

Srivastava rushed to Churchgate via another train in hopes of recovering the bag but could not locate it in the compartment. He then approached the police and lodged a theft complaint at Mumbai Central Police Station under Section 305(a) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The Railway Crime Branch’s Special Task Force, under Senior Inspector Vijay Khedekar and led by API Abhijit Taylor and PSI Krushnarao Chavan, launched an intensive probe. CCTV footage from Churchgate platform no. 3 showed a youth exiting the train with a white bag and boarding a Virar-bound local on a parallel platform.

Police tracked CCTV footage from station to station, eventually locating the suspect at Vasai Railway Station, where he boarded a shared rickshaw. Earlier footage also showed the same youth boarding the Churchgate train from Vasai, confirming he was likely a Vasai resident.

With only grainy CCTV images and a massive population to navigate, police faced a tough task locating the youth. The team painstakingly checked CCTV footage from every rickshaw stand. One rickshaw was traced to the densely populated Tungareshwar area near the highway. The youth was seen exiting the rickshaw and walking into a residential slum area.

Police then canvassed the area with his photo, and finally, a local resident identified him. The team raided a chawl and arrested the suspect, Shivkumar Maurya (20). He admitted to finding the bag in the train but chose to flee with it instead of returning it.

Out of the stolen ₹7 lakh, the police recovered ₹6.52 lakh from the accused. The operation was carried out by a dedicated team including constables Pravin Gharge, Santosh Deshmukh, Sunil Kumbhar, Vaibhav Shinde, Vaibhav Jadhav, Vikas Raskar, Satish Phadke, Ganesh Mahagavkar, Mayur Patil, Amarsingh Valvi, Sunil Magade, Swapnil Nagare, and Akash Sonawane. The police have praised the coordinated effort and the role of technology in cracking the case within days.