Thane: Aarti Gholapkar, a daily woman commuter from Dombivali, was travelling on the footboard of a local train on the trans-harbour line on Thursday evening, when a thief pulled her off the train with a hook used to snatch her handbag. Aarti died in a Thane hospital on Saturday evening.
She was in a coma in Criti Care Hospital with severe damage to her brain. Aarti hails from Chiplun.
Aarti was travelling on the footboard of the Thane-bound local train when a man, wielding a stick with a hook, tried to knock off her handbag as he stood on the tracks.
Aarti lost her balance and fell near the tracks, and the brute stripped off her ornaments as well as handbag and left her lying near the track bleeding profusely.
The incident took place near Rabale station. There was no fencing or boundary wall where she fell.
A drain flows on one side of the tracks, and on the other side there is a path that leads to the highway.
Aarti's colleague, Chhaya Pokharkar, says she was a self-made and independent woman who believed in earning on her own and never depended on family members. She always took care of her teenage daughter.
Criti Care Hospital neurosurgeon Dr Santosh Rathi says, the diffuse axonal injury to her head had resulted in an injury to her brain stem.
"She was not responding to the medicines as her brain was severely damaged with multiple haemorrhage. Ever since she was admitted to the hospital, she was in coma. An autopsy will be carried out before handing over the body to her family," Rathi said.
The local GRP (government railway police) has set up five tams to catch the culprit. At least seven suspects have been rounded up.
Aarti used to travel on the footboard bcause it was easier for her to alight quickly at Thane to avoid the rush on the foot overbridge to change trains for Dombivali where she lived.
Vashi GRP have converted the case of 'robbery with assault' to that of 'murder.'
