CHENNAI: A passenger was killed by teen-aged mobile phone snatchers who pulled him down from a running train near Minjur on November 9. After battling grievous head injuries, sustained during the incident, for five days, Siddeshwara Das died at a hospital in the city on Wednesday night.
Police said the victim had been standing close to the train’s door, holding the cellphone, as the Howrah-Chennai Central Coromandal Express slowed down near Minjur around 3.45 pm on November 9.
Two teenaged thieves allegedly climbed into the train and tried to snatch the cellphone from Das.
“As the victim resisted, the robbers pulled him down from the running train,” said PK Ravi, Deputy Superintendent of Police, GRP, Central. As the victim fell, he hit his head on the adjacent track.
The train was halted after passengers raised an alarm. Das was rescued and hospitalised at the Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital.
He succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday night. Railway police have arrested two persons, aged 18 and 17, on charges of murder. Both have been remanded in judicial custody.
Railway police sources said Das, a native of West Bengal, had lost his job and was travelling to Chennai to look for work.
He had been travelling in a sleeper compartment. Ravi said police vigilance along the tracks in the Korukkupet-Gummidipundi section had been tightened.