Autorickshaw driver chases robber on foot,gets back his passenger’s chain

Gupta,a Vikhroli resident,has been working since the past two years with Trans-Ocean Distribution Ltd,a Singapore-based company engaged in transportation of bulk liquids around the world. His family owns a couple of auto rickshaws which they give out on rent. However,whenever the hired drivers don’t turn up,Gupta drives one himself.

“On Sunday,one of the auto rickshaw drivers didn’t turn up and hence I took out the vehicle. A middle-aged lady boarded the rickshaw at Ghatkopar station to go to Vile Parle. When we were stuck in traffic at the LBS Road,a youth suddenly lunged into the rickshaw to snatch her chain and ran away. After the woman’s frantic cries,I began chasing him on foot,” said Gupta.

“I followed him down a lane where he suddenly turned around to face me,brandishing a small but sharp-looking knife. While he tried to attack me with it,I dodged and dealt him a blow. After a scuffle,some pedestrians also helped me overpower him and we took him to the police station. The woman,who later told me her name as Suhasini Ambekar,looked as if she had all hopes of getting her chain back and squealed with happiness when she saw me with it,” said Gupta.

Police inspector Uttam Kolekar of the Ghatkopar police station was surprised to see the 21-year-old robber being escorted by people including a teary-eyed lady.

“The robber,Suraj Dhoke,has been arrested four times in the past for chain-snatchings and had been released from jail only on October 7. We have booked Dhoke on charges of robbery,and using a weapon intensified the gravity of the offence,” said Kolekar.

Gupta shrugged off compliments about his bravery and insisted that he would have done it even if there were four robbers instead of one. “I still cannot forget the woman’s face before and after the robbery. She reminded me of my mother and that was the only thing in my mind when I ran behind the robber,” said Gupta,who claims to have been a college-level athletics champion,and also the one who reportedly helped nab two pickpockets in a bus a year ago.