MANGALURU: A passenger aboard the Bengaluru-Karwar Express woke up to find his phone missing at the charging point by his seat, on Wednesday night. Joshaya Das from Bengaluru had put his mobile for charge, and the next thing he knew when his sleep broke was that his phone was gone.
“I did not realise I had fallen asleep,” he said. The plaintiff informed the Railway police force doing rounds at Mysuru railway station on Wednesday night. They instructed Das to file a complaint at the Mangaluru station in the morning.
On filing a complaint at Mangaluru railway police station, Das was told that he should have filed the ‘missing-item form’ which was usually found with the TC. Something he was not informed by the police personnel in the train earlier. Nonetheless, an FIR was lodged. “It will take two weeks to transfer the FIR to the concerned (Mysuru) limits via Bengaluru.
We have e-mailed all circles, informing them about the missing phone,” he said about the attempt to trace the phone with the IMEI number. “Railway Protection Force escorts passengers starting from Mysuru to Mangaluru,” said Madhu, from Government Railway Police, Mangaluru.
There have been four incidents of theft in the last month, two of which were traced, added the official, all incidents of phone’s missing from charging points. Sources said only a few report thefts to the police because of the ‘unfriendly’ system in place. Co-passengers complained of people with general tickets occupying the sleeper class coach. Lack of patrolling is said to be one of the reasons for thefts. Only three RPF constables will be manning the entire train of 20 carriages.