Western Railway’s Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel are always at the forefront to protect and secure the lives of passengers. RPF WR has launched Operation Yatri Suraksha under which RPF catches criminals involved in passenger-related crimes such as theft and robbery & the accused are handed over to GRP for further legal action. With a focused approach under operation Yatri Suraksha, Western Railway’s RPF is producing excellent results and RPF Mumbai Division has caught 226 thieves and 16 robbery accused in the year 2022 till date.
According to Sumit Thakur – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, the RPF has formed special Crime Prevention and Detection Squads (CPDS) at all major stations in Mumbai Division of WR which work intelligently by gathering source information to catch the criminals. These teams collect information from CCTV footages, do the analysis of black spots in and around the stations and also maintains the record of previous criminals. Installation of CCTV cameras at stations in suburban section has helped a lot in identifying the suspects and improving prevention and detection of cases. Last year, more than 2700 new CCTVs have been installed in Churchgate - Virar suburban section while 86 CCTVs were installed at Surat station.
Thakur further stated that in yet another major accomplishment, RPF CPDS staff caught robbers involved in 5 different cases of theft in a single day, i.e. on 19th June, 2022 and handed them over to GRP for further legal action. The CPDS team caught suspected mobile thieves from Malad, Virar & Surat stations while two pickpocketers were apprehended in different cases from Nalasopara & Vasai Road stations. With these excellent results, the RPF is motivated to intensify the drive under Operative Yatri Suraksha in near future.
