The Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Saturday arrested three women who posed as monkey handlers for harassment and extortion. Police said the women would target train compartments reserved for the physically handicapped and threaten to let the simians loose if passengers didn’t pay up. The monkeys too were arrested .
Following repeated complaints of harassment, the RPF laid a trap at Ghatkopar station based on specific information that the accused were on a Thane-CST train. The monkeys were handed over to the forest department. The women were booked under the Railway Act, produced in court and released on a Rs. 400 bail bond.
PI Brijesh Singh, RPF, said, “This gang would enter the compartment on the pretext of begging, and use the monkeys to extort money. They were active for several years. They had purchased the monkeys for Rs. 2,000. We suspect there is a gang leader."
The writer is a freelance journalist
