The arrest by the Government Railway Police comes over a week after the 24-year-old foreign national was robbed and attacked with a blade in the first class compartment of a local at Grant Road station on a Sunday afternoon
Eight days after a 24-year-old American woman was slashed with a blade and robbed of her phone in a local at Grant Road station, the Government Railway Police has arrested the suspect.
History-sheeter: The 31-year-old accused Rajkumar Tiwari has confessed to over 10 more robberies and thefts
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During interrogation, the accused Rajkumar Somnath Tiwari (31) told cops that he needed money to go to his village for Rakshabandhan so he attacked the US national. Tiwari, a pickpocket, has a record of stealing railway property, and had twice been externed from the city.
“He stays at a footpath in Dongri and is a regular offender who commits thefts like pilfering mobile phones and such. This was a sensitive case as the victim was an American national and we were under pressure to catch hold of the accused,” said a railway police official.
According to the railway police, Tiwari has five cases filed against him at CST station but has admitted to over 10 robberies and thefts on railway premises.
“We conducted a drive and netted almost 200 drug addicts and other suspects among whom was Tiwari,” said an official, adding that Dollmark gave an accurate description of the attacker -- marks on his nose and brown eyes. “She is a brave girl. She had seen him closely, and while looking for him our men kept the ID sketch in mind,” the official said.
Bansidhar Shirsat, deputy commissioner of police, GRP, said, “We have arrested the suspect and he has confessed to the crime. Investigation is still on.”
Dollmark is still under trauma and has been meditating to attain normalcy. She has requested police officials not to summon or contact her except through email.
2
The number of times the accused has been externed from the city
200
The number of druggies that were detained during investigation
8
No of days it took the GRP to nab the accused
The assault
On August 18, Michelle Dollmark, who works with an NGO in Andheri, was going home to Goregaon from Colaba Church when Tiwari entered the first-class compartment of the Borivli-bound local she was travelling in.
He tried to snatch her purse but when she resisted, he attacked her with a blade, grabbed her cell phone and fled.
He sold the iPhone for Rs 300: cops
The police have not yet recovered Dollmark’s iPhone that Tiwari had robbed. Tiwari, cops said, had sold the costly mobile to a woman who would procure drugs from him. “The woman only paid him Rs 300 for the iphone, which cost around Rs 40,000. He bought a shirt for Rs 100 since the one he was wearing was spoiled with blood stains, and kept the rest of the money with him.”u00a0
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