Mumbai: Over 248 phones were reported misplaced or stolen during Tuesday's Ganpati Visarjan procession, marking the final day of the Ganeshotsav festival. Utilising temporary control room facilities, the Mumbai Police also successfully traced and reunited 38 missing minors with their families, most of whom were lost in the bustling crowds at Girgaon Chowpatty in South Mumbai.
The Kalachowki police, responsible for the jurisdiction of Lalbaugcha Raja, received over 60 complaints of stolen mobile phones during the Ganpati Visarjan procession. Officers on bandobast duty not only monitored the crowds but were also tasked with preventing crimes such as chain snatching and mobile theft while ensuring the safety of women. The procession drew over 1.5 lakh devotees to the area under Kalachowki police's watch.
According to officials, several suspicious individuals were apprehended during the event. Nine of them, with prior criminal records, confessed to travelling from outside Mumbai, including states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, with the intent to commit theft.
FIRs are currently being filed against them, informed police officials on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the Kalachowki police reported no complaints of sexual molestation, assault, or casualties on the final day of the festival, Tuesday.
The crowded Girgaon Chowpatty, where over 4 lakh devotees gathered for Ganpati Visarjan, was under the shared jurisdiction of two police stations – DB Marg and VP Road. At DB Marg, 99 mobile phones were reported missing, while VP Road police registered 89 cases of lost phones.
Throughout Wednesday, both stations actively filed multiple FIRs. By night, the VP Road police successfully recovered one mobile phone, which was returned to a Mumbai resident who had lost it in the crowd during the visarjan.
This year, the Mumbai Police deployed over 20,000 personnel for Ganpati bandobast duty, ensuring crowd management and maintaining law and order at Girgaon Chowpatty. To enhance surveillance, the police installed additional CCTV cameras, deployed seven drones, and set up temporary control rooms to monitor the massive crowds. Special task forces were also stationed among the devotees for real-time crowd management.
During the event, Police Constable Deepali Kandalkar, assigned to Girgaon Chowpatty, played a key role in rescuing 38 missing children aged between 2 and 17. “These children were separated from their parents, relatives, or guardians,” said a police official. “We brought them to temporary shelters where they were asked for any identifying information. Using these details, our task force located their families and successfully reunited them with their children.”
Under the duty of Police Constable Deepali Kandalkar, 19 missing adults were also located after their relatives and spouses reported them as missing. Leveraging the drone and CCTV facilities, along with the ‘watch tower announcement’ system, the police efficiently managed to trace both missing children and adults amidst the crowded Girgaon Chowpatty area.
