Delhi Metro: 91 per cent pickpockets held by CISF are women

NEW DELHI: Continuing the trend witnessed over the past few years, women constitute over 91 per cent of pickpockets apprehended by the CISF in the Delhi Metro network in the national capital region. The force, that is tasked to provide armed security to Delhi Metro operations, apprehended a total of 479 women pickpockets, out of which an overwhelming 438 were women, according to official data. The full-year data, updated till the middle of December, states that the security force undertook a little over 100 operations to check pickpocketing in the rapid rail lifeline of Delhi and its adjoining areas, that carries an estimated 26 lakh commuters every day. The overwhelming number of women indulging in these crimes has shown a constant trend over the last few years and the Central Industrial Security Force, after apprehending these women, hands them over to the Delhi Police for legal action under law. Recently, the CISF had unearthed a notorious gang of such women who had robbed a US-based Indian lady of her jewels and valuables while she was travelling in the Delhi Metro with her husband. "The figures state that women constitute over 91 per cent (of the total pickpockets) in pickpocketing crimes in the Delhi Metro. "It has been found that the modus operandi of these women is to either carry a child or travel in a group to con and pick a purse or other valuables of a traveller, be it a man or a woman," a senior official said. In order to check these crimes, the force regularly undertakes special operations and deploys women and men personnel in plain-clothes to keep an eye on trouble makers. Last year, 93 per cent of the total number of pickpockets apprehended by the CISF in the Delhi Metro were women. In 2014, over 300 women were intercepted for these crimes making them about 94 per cent of those held, while in 2013, of the total 466 pickpockets held across various stations of the Delhi Metro, 421 were women and the rest were men. This year, during the same time period till mid-December, the force also found 106 missing children and handed them over to their guardians or the station controlling authorities.