On January 18, he boarded a local train with a phone in his hand and dreams of reaching home after work. Minutes later, Ritesh Rakesh Yerunkar was fighting for his life on a hospital bed, his left leg amputated after a phone snatching inside a moving train sent him crashing onto the tracks.
“One day I was simply travelling home, and the next I was lying in a hospital bed without my left leg,” said Ritesh Rakesh Yerunkar, the 30-year-old salesman whose life changed in a matter of seconds.
After finishing his shift at a mall in Seawoods, Yerunkar boarded a local train bound for Badlapur East. The incident occurred late at night as the train was passing through Ambernath station at around 11.45 pm.
Yerunkar was seated in the luggage compartment and was scrolling through his mobile phone when the accused, Kailas Balkrishna Jadhav, 27, who was standing next to him, allegedly snatched the phone from his hand and tried to flee.
Fall that changed everything
Recalling the moments that followed, Yerunkar said, “As I ran behind him to get my phone back, a scuffle broke out. We were pushing each other and I managed to grab my phone again. But in one final push by the accused, I lost my balance and fell off the moving train.”
Kailas Balkrishna Jadhav, 27, the accused, who suffered minor injuries. Pic/By Special Arrangement
The fall left him with serious injuries to his face and both legs. He was first rushed to Central Hospital, Ulhasnagar, and later referred to King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, where doctors were forced to amputate his left leg to save his life.
Family shattered
Yerunkar is undergoing post-surgery treatment at the intensive care unit of KEM Hospital, battling severe pain following the amputation. He comes from a lower-middle-class family. His sister works as a nurse at a private hospital, his father is employed with a private firm, and his mother is a homemaker.
Asked why he chased the accused, Yerunkar said he acted on instinct. “I was not thinking. I never imagined something like this could happen. I just ran after him to get my phone back. Getting injured or losing my leg was never something that crossed my mind,” he said.
Speaking about the accused’s arrest, Yerunkar said he was relieved but not vengeful. “I feel I have received half my justice because the GRP caught him. I cannot demand that he suffer what I suffered. That would be unreasonable. I only want him to be punished according to the law. That is when I will get my complete justice.”
Police action
Rakesh Kalasagar, commissioner of the Government Railway Police, Mumbai, told mid-day that the accused was immediately apprehended by the Kalyan GRP. “An offence has been registered under Sections 304(2) and 307 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The accused has been arrested and will be prosecuted as per the law,” Kalasagar said. Senior Police Inspector Pandhari Kande of the Kalyan GRP told mid-day that the accused, Jadhav, had earlier been involved in an offence as a juvenile.
“After the scuffle, Jadhav also fell and sustained injuries. When police personnel at Ambernath station approached both the accused and the complainant, they immediately apprehended him. Compared to Yerunkar, Jadhav suffered only minor injuries to his head and chin and is currently in police custody,” Kande said. He added, “Jadhav is not a serious repeat offender. He has one previous juvenile case of mobile phone theft registered against him.”
Inputs by Ritika Gondhalekar
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