Thane, February 19 A man who caused a security scare after a video of him travelling in a women's compartment of a suburban train while wearing a burqa went viral on social media has been identified and booked, a railway police official said on Thursday.
The 57-year-old man, a resident of Nashik, is suffering from schizophrenia and is receiving treatment at a mental hospital in Sambhaji Nagar, the official added.
A video showed the man getting off at the Ghatkopar station, following which a probe was ordered by railway police commissioner Rakesh Kalasagar and DCP Pragya Zedge, although no woman commuter had come forward to file a complaint, he said.
"A team led by senior inspector Sambhaji Yadav scanned hundreds of CCTV feeds to trace the suspect's movements. It was found that the man entered the local train from the general compartment of the UP Patliputra Express at Thane on February 6. He was tracked to Igatpuri in Nashik, where he was seen getting off in a burqa before boarding another train," the official said.
"Further surveillance at Nashik Road station showed him jumping over a railway fence to enter the premises. After checking footage from 25 CCTV cameras across Nashik city over several days, his location was narrowed down to a building in the Muktidham area. Head constables Jagtap and Gaikwad, who were keeping watch near the building, spotted a man whose walking style and shoes matched details from the video," the official said.
The man is suffering from schizophrenia and is receiving regular treatment at the Sambhaji Nagar Mental Hospital, and he often wanders off or locks himself in his house for hours, a railway police release said.
He has been booked by the Thane Railway Protection Force (RPF) for entering a carriage reserved for females, and he has since been handed over to the custody of the RPF at Ghatkopar for further legal formalities, the release said.