Navi Mumbai: In a major security lapse by Belapur Railway Protection Force (RPF), two accused women arrested for attempting theft of overhead electric wires from Juinagar railway godown escaped from the lockup on Sept 28 past midnight.
As per the FIR, registered by RPF sub-inspector Milap Parte (52) at Panvel GRP on Sept 24, a case was registered under Section 3(a) of the Railway Property (Unauthorized Possession) Act, 1966, Amendment 2012, at Belapur railway police station, based on a written memo given by RPF personnel Ravikant Gade stating the theft of overhead electric wires from the godown at Juinagar railway station on Sept 21. During the probe, on Sept 26, a trap was laid, and around 1 pm, two women were found loitering suspiciously near the Juinagar godown with the intention of committing theft and were taken into custody. They were identified as Rupali Kailas Kurhade (30) from Jalna and Shalibai Ashok Pawar (49) from Bhiwandi. They were arrested after registering an FIR of theft attempt and produced before CSMT court that remanded them to police custody till Sept 30. Around 2 am on Sept. 28, when Bagre had gone to the toilet, the two women managed to open the lock by inserting their hands through the iron bars of the lockup and jerking the lock, which was probably not locked properly. The incident was captured on the CCTV footage, which was checked after PSI Parte woke up at home around 6.30 am and found several missed calls from head constable Bagre and ASI Rajiv Parsan.
They were lodged in the lockup at Belapur RPF police station. Day-shift woman constable Rakhi Malaiya was assigned to guard duty at the lockup. Thereafter, woman head constable Pooja Bagre was on night duty. They reached the balcony at the rear end of the police station. They removed their sarees, tied one end to the generator on the balcony, and then climbed down and escaped.