Chennai

Trying to resist a gang of phone snatchers turned fatal for a 26-year-old from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, who fell off the train and came under its wheels. His limbs were severed and he died on the spot, police said.

Shantini Basha from Indira Nagar in Guntur was working in a manpower agency that sends people abroad for work. The incident happened at around 8 pm when he was returning to home with his relatives who had to undergo medical examination in the city as they too had plans to go abroad.

Basha and relatives were travelling in an unreserved coach of Grand Trunk Express bound for New Delhi from Chennai Central, with Basha sitting on the steps. As the train was moving at a slow pace near Ennore station, a gang tried to snatch the mobile phone from his hand. He reportedly held on to the phone but lost balance and fell down, getting run over by the same train.

His relatives and others pulled the emergency chain, but the train stopped only six kilometres away. So they got down only at the next railway station in Gudur, about 135 km away from Chennai. As directed by RPF personnel there, they reached Korukkupet and lodged a complaint.

Basha’s body was sent to Government Stanley Hospital for autopsy, while Railway Police at Chennai Central traced his phone’s location and a team led by inspector E Velu secured one Nagaraj. With his inputs, police nabbed N Prakash (24) and M Mukesh (18) from Ennore, and a boy aged 16.

Police said Nagaraj was involved in about six robberies in the same stretch, while the other three were involved in a couple of robberies. The trio will be produced before a magistrate court on Sunday, while the juvenile will be send to the correctional facility for boys in Kellys.

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