How A Train Passenger’s Selfie Helped Mumbai Police Solve A Murder Mystery

Mumbai: Clicking unusual selfies from risky positions have, at times, landed many in trouble.

But this is a case where a selfie video clicked by railway commuter helped police solve a murder mystery.

A man identified as Prabhas Bhange died after falling from a moving train three days ago at Vitthalwadi railway station in Thane near Mumbai.

Police, unaware of how he fell from the train, were conducting an investigation.

Help came in the form of a selfie taken by a train passenger named Zahid Zaidi.

Zaidi was filming a selfie video when one Akash Jadhav tried to snatch the former’s mobile phone.

Jadhav failed in his attempt, but Zaidi was able to capture his face on the video, NDTV reported.

Zaidi alerted police about the snatching attempt by posting the video on social media, which went viral and caught Kalyan Railway Police’s attention.

“On Tuesday, we arrested a suspect who had prior cases registered against him in Thane. We recovered a second mobile phone from him,” Railway police officer Pandharinath Kande said.

Asked where that phone came from, Jadhav refused to answer.

Once that phone was switched on, police got to know about Bhange, its owner.

A bank employee, Pune resident was going home for Holi. As fate would have it, he lost his life on the way when he tried to retrieve his phone which was snatched.

“Bhange was travelling from Kalyan to Pune. At Vitthalwadi station, Jadhav snatched his phone. To get his mobile phone back, Bhange tried to get down from the train and fell to his death,” the official said.

Jadhav was arrested and a case registered against him.