A FATAL RIDE ON A LIFELINE. Woman train commuter brain dead after falling prey to thief

George Mendonca & Nitasha Natu TNN 

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Navi Mumbai: A woman commuter is extremely critical after a robber lurking near a pole by the trans-harbour railway line struck her with a hooked stick, knocking her off a running train, on Thursday evening. As she lay unconscious and bleeding by the tracks between Ghansoli and Rabale, the thief robbed her ornaments and handbag and fled. Her colleagues rescued her and took her to hospital, where doctors said she is brain dead. 
    Aarti Gholapkar, 43, who lives in Dombivli with her daughter, was returning home after work at a shirt factory in Pawane MIDC. As the railway police’s escort duty begins at 8.30pm, there was no policeman in the coach. Victim’s colleagues say cops arrived late, family in shock Habitual Offender Detained, Youths Near Tracks Under Lens 
    A company bus had dropped off factory worker Aarti Gholapkar and her colleagues at Koparkhairane station and she and some of her colleagues had boarded the ladies second-class compartment of a 7.15pm train to Thane. 
    Gholapkar was standing on the foot-board as the train pulled out of Ghansoli station. “Around 7.30pm, an unidentified person standing near a pole struck her with a stick that had a sharp hook at one end to knock off her handbag. Gholapkar, taken by surprise, fell off the train. Finding her unconsciousness, the robber stole her gold mangalsutra and a pair of earrings worth Rs 26,000, apart from her handbag, and fled,” said a GRP official. 
    Gholapkar’s colleagues got off at the next station, Rabale, informed a motorman about the incident and rushed down the tracks to rescue her. She was taken to Criti Care Hospital at Thane and admitted in ICCU. 
    “Aarti’s condition is critical. She has sustained diffuse axonal injury to her head, due to which her brain has been severely damaged. She has internal bleeding in the brain and multiple haemorrhages. On medical grounds, she is brain dead,” said Dr Santosh Rathi, the neurologist treating her. 
    The motorman told the Rabale station master, who called the Vashi GRP. By the time the police came, Gholapkar had been taken to hospital. 
    The GRP has registered a case of robbery under sections 394 (causing hurt while committing robbery) and 397 (robbery or dacoity) and detained a suspect. “We have picked up a suspect from Mumbra who has been involved in similar offences in the past. We have formed teams to question youths loitering around tracks,” said P Karyakarte, senior inspector, Vashi GRP. 
    Gholapkar’s mother and brother, Abhay Kanekar, have rushed to the hospital from Chiplun. “Aarti has never harmed anyone and I can’t understand why something so terrible had to happen to her,” her mother said, fighting back tears. “The robber should be caught and lynched so that he never repeats something like this.” 
    Gholapkar’s colleagues Avanti Sahu and Gitanjali Bandekar, who were among those who took her to hospital, said most of the commuters were mute spectators and even the cops turned up much later. 
    In a similar incident at Chinchpokli barely an hour before the Rabale case, a robber hit three women travelling on the footboard of a crowded local with a stick and stole a cell phone. “Had the girl who dropped her phone not clasped the vertical rod at the coach door tightly, she would have fallen,” said a mediaperson who witnessed the incident around 6.15pm. No complaint was lodged.

Aarti Gholapkar, 43, fell off a train between Ghansoli and Rabale stations on Wednesday evening after being hit with a stick by a robber standing next to the tracks. As she lay bleeding and unconscious, the thief proceeded to rob her of her bag and ornaments

THE NEWS AS IT APPEARED IN MUMBAI MIRROR

Hook used to snatch CR commuter’s bag leaves her brain dead Horrified fellow travellers watch 43-yr-old fall off Nazia.Sayed @timesgroup.com  TWEETS @_MumbaiMirror  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2013/09/07&PageLabel=3&EntityId=Ar00300&ViewMode=HTML     Forty three-year-old Dombivli resident and Central Railway commuter Arti Gholapkar was left brain dead after a horrifying ordeal on Thursday evening when she was returning home to her daughter.      Gholapkar was standing at the footboard of a Thane-bound train that she took daily when around 7.30 pm the train made an unscheduled but not unusual stop between Ghansoli and Rabale. The mother of one was chatting away with her office colleagues from the Turbhe-based Shirt India Pvt Ltd where she works as a clerk. Unknown to her, a man armed with a fishing line and a hook was perched high on a pole just opposite her compartment. As the train halted, the thief flung out the line angling for Gholapkar’s handbag which was hanging from her shoulder. The fishing hook landed with such force that it not only pulled at her handbag, it also left her struggling for balance. In front of her horrified co-passengers' eyes, she toppled over, falling into the tall grass below. Her head hit the pole on which the thief was perched as she fell. The thief who came down the pole, and his accomplice, waiting in the tall grass, dragged her off deeper into the bushes where they took off her jewellery and rifled through her handbag before disappearing into the bushes around, leaving her bleeding near the tracks.      Twenty-five commuters, many of whom were Gholapkar’s collegues, travelling on the same train, rushed back from the next station, Rabale, and took her to a hospital where doctors said the extent of her injuries was grave. “We had some idea of where she had fallen but we could not immediately locate her,” said her colleague Joseph Anthony Sebastian, 23 -- “I spotted her sandals near the pole and then we found her lying unconscious, blood oozing from her head.” These commuters then bravely stood in the middle of the tracks and stopped the next oncoming train. They, and the motorman, bundled her in and took her to Lifeline Hospital at Airoli. In view of the severity of her injuries Gholapkar was shifted to Ayush Hospital and from where to the better-equipped Criticare, Thane.      “I leave home before mom does and the last conversation I had with her was in the afternoon when she called me to say that there was food in the fridge and that I need not make dinner…and now here she is fighting for life,”saidGholapkar’s daughter Raveena, left stunned by the turn of events.      “Gholapkar is in a critical condition and is brain dead. We are waiting for the family to take a call,” said Dr Santosh Rathi of Criticare Hospital, who is treating her.      Devanand Harap, one of Gholapkar’s colleagues, said this was the third such incident which had happened with their office staff. “In the previous two cases, the ladies were not injured and only their handbag was snatched. This is the same spot where it happens and yet the police pay no heed.”     Senior inspector S. Karyekarte of Vashi GRP said a case has been registered and investigations have begun.