Using the facial recognition technology, a burglar who targeted sleeping passengers on trains and stations to steal cell phones was apprehended by the railway police. About 15 years ago, the accused, who is crippled, was involved in a train accident that resulted in the loss of a hand and a leg. The accused would sit close to others, taking advantage of their concern for his infirmity. He would take their belongings, mainly their cell phones, while they were conversing or asleep.
Raju Vasant Jadhav, a 42-year-old resident of Nalasopara who works in
Goregaon, filed the complaint on May 18 while he was waiting for a train at the Goregaon station. His Oppo mobile phone, which was valued at about INR 4,000, was stolen when he woke up from a sound sleep. To the railway police, he reported the theft. The culprit was identified as the phone thief by the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) after a CCTV check.
An GRP officer stated that although we had identified the culprit, we had not previously known where he was. Assistant Sub Inspector Prakash Salunkhe and the detecting squad looked for the culprit under the direction of DCP Sandip Bhajibhakare and the watchful eye of Senior Police Inspector Datta Khuperkar of Borivli GRP. On Monday, he was taken into custody at Malad station.
The accused's activities were captured on video by the station's CCTV system. He was uploaded as a cropped image to the RPF's facial recognition database. The system sent out a warning upon a second review of the Malad station CCTV footage. The culprit was brought into jail with the aid of RPF officers based in Malad.
Usman Yousuf Shaikh, 45, a resident of the
Mumbai Central neighbourhood next to the Maratha Mandir Cinema walkway, has been identified as the arrested man. Shaikh is facing numerous cases.
System for facial recognition:
Western Railway (WR) has placed face recognition cameras at several of its train stations since 2018. If a person's photo is sent into the system and the camera detects it again, these cameras immediately send out an alert. The RPF-operated control unit at each station receives the warning. The RPF and the GRP crew at the station are alerted as soon as they receive the warning.
The CCTV cameras that are mounted on railway platforms assist solve about 60 cases a month on average; of these, about 30 percent are resolved with the use of cameras equipped with facial recognition software. Historical applications of the facial recognition system by the WR.
The use of facial recognition system (FRS) cameras and routine CCTV checks by the WR RPF has proved beneficial in apprehending criminals, particularly in Mumbai. The theft of four cell phones at Andheri Station was one significant case. Under the supervision of the RPF, the ADH CPDS team conducted continuous surveillance, which resulted in Vinod Prem Chand Gupta's, 38, arrest on March 20. Gupta, an Andheri East resident, admitted swiping the four cell phones. He was turned over to Andheri/GRP for additional processing. The stolen phones are worth a total of INR 87,499 in total.
A 21-year-old Jogeshwari West resident named Sultan Mahmood Shah reported the loss of his cell phone at the Mahim railway station on January 8. The phone fell from his palm and onto the rails when an unidentified individual gave it a knock. Sultan looked everywhere for his phone, but it was nowhere to be found.
He went to the GRP in Andheri to report the event, and they told him to look at the CCTV footage. After watching the video, which showed an unidentified individual snatching the phone, the CPDS team of the Andheri RPF examined the evidence. They took a picture of the suspect, updated it in the FRS, and kept an eye on him.
The FRS sent out an alert on a person of interest on January 12. The culprit was apprehended quickly by the team on Andheri station's first platform. The 17-year-old Vile Parle West resident Nikhil Nagesh More, the suspect, admitted to the theft.
Share
Tweet
