Thefts top the Mumbai railway crime record in 2010

Mumbai, Feb 4 (PTI) Thefts, followed bypickpocketing and chain snatching, topped the crime recordunder the jurisdiction of Mumbai suburban railway in 2010.

The "2010 crime sheet", released by AdditionalDirector General of Police (Railways) Raj Khilnani today, alsoshows a rise in molestation cases; while there was nosignificant drop in incidents of chain snatching, or deaths onon the railway tracks.

Most of the deaths occurred when victims tried tocross the tracks instead of using foot overbridges and got runover by trains, Khilnani said.

A total of 3,710 commuters died due to differentmishaps in 2010 of which over 2,700 were killed while crossingthe tracks. In 2009, total of 3706 commuters had been killedin the railway jurisdiction.

As many as 2,037 thefts (from 2,075 in the year 2009),and 525 pickpocketing incidents were reported in 2010. Also,there were 416 chain-snatching incidents.

There was increase in the number of pickpocketingcases, as the 2009 figure was 442. In 2009, 452 chainsnatching incidents had been reported.

Number of bag-snatching incidents rose to 229 in 2010from 201 in the previous year.

Khilnani attributed the rise in such crimes to thecrowded trains. "It is not practically possible for policemento be present everywhere. Criminals execute such crimes duringthe rush hours. The commuters should be more alert," he said.