India, Sept. 23 -- Four months after a robbery on the Nanded Express left a Mumbai doctor crippled for life, the Kurla Government Railway Police (GRP) on Sunday finally tracked down the accused-a hardened thief with a trail of over 30 cases-arresting him in Kozhikode, Kerala.

The accused, identified as Mohammad Saif alias Asgar Ali Chowdhury, 42, was once a hawker selling trinkets on local trains. But his petty trade spiralled into a career of chain- and bag-snatching across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), leaving behind a string of complaints.

On June 4, physician Dr Yogesh Deshmukh, 50, was travelling with his wife, Dr Deepali, and their nine-year-old son to their native village on the Nanded Express. As the family dozed, Saif p...