'Pink Patrol’ of Railway Police Nabs Offenders, Drone Surveillance Protects Women Passengers in MMTS

Hyderabad: Work of a drone-led ‘Pink Patrol’ of UAV pilots of the Railway Protection Force on Tuesday led to the arrest of a man who had a stolen cellphone and a packet each of narcotics and sleeping tablets. According to an RPF press note, the all-women drone pilots team observed an individual moving in a suspicious manner on the station premises and maintaining unusual proximity to passengers. This was corroborated by women RPF personnel deployed on the ground. Based on coordinated surveillance inputs and prompt intervention, the suspect was intercepted and apprehended before he could leave the station premises, police said.

Upon frisking him, RPF personnel recovered a suspected stolen mobile phone, valued approximately at ₹28,000, without a SIM card, as well as a packet containing marijuana and sleeping tablets. Verification revealed that the apprehended person was a history-sheeter with a record of multiple criminal cases, including attempt to murder and house break-in. He was handed over to government railway police at Kacheguda for further legal action and investigation. Additionally, the drone team helped the arrest of two persons, which resulted in the recovery of stolen property worth approximately ₹92,480, the RPF said.

Debashmita C. Banerjee, senior divisional security commissioner, RPF-Hyderabad, told Deccan Chronicle that Pink Patrol was the first such initiative in the country,  specifically at providing security for women travelling on MMTS trains.

The Pink Patrol personnel have been trained to operate drones and are licenced by the Director-General of Civil Aviation. Banerjee said a woman passenger told her that since the drone force became operative, there was no harassment of women in stations and no one was boarding ladies coach. The official said there was a significant fall in harassment, thefts and stone pelting. “Offenders are now scared to even enter into the platforms due to the monitoring by Pink Patrol drones,” she said. c

The drones have thermal imaging, night vision capability, HD video transmission, and long-range zoom capture.