Railway staffers turn rogues, halt trains, scuffle with RPF men

AGRA: In two separate incidents, railway employees became a cause of embarrassment for the Indian Railways by forcing trains to make unscheduled halts. In the the first incident, an assistant loco pilot allegedly pulled the alarm chain to stop a train so that he could alight at a station where the train was not supposed to stop. In another incident, the brother in-law of a station master was caught travelling ticketless by RPF personnel. In both cases, instead of taking the offenders to task, railway employees jumped to their rescue.

In the first incident, Lalit Kumar an assistant loco pilot (ALP), who was travelling on the New Delhi-Puri bound Neelanchal superfast express ((12876), allegedly pulled the alarm chain of the train when it was about to reach Tundla station. According to railway officials, Neelanchal has no halt at Tundla.

Infuriated with the ALP's act, RPF constable Deepak Kumar who spotted him disembarking from the train, caught him and asked him to come along to the RPF office at the station. But instead of cooperating with an on duty cop, the accused resisted and cried wolf, calling upon his colleagues to prevent the cop from taking him to the station.

Speaking to TOI, station in-charge of RPF, Tundla, Ajeet Tiwari, said, "From the train only Lalit Kumar alighted, which promoted constable Deepak Kumar to take action. We haven't registered any complaint in the matter but divisional traffic manager, Shivam Sharma, of Tundla has set up a three-member committee to investigate the matter and punish the culprit."

In the second case, the brother-in-law of a station master was held at Fatehgarh station by RPF personnel for allegedly travelling without a ticket. The accused identified as 20-year-old Aditya engaged himself in a scuffle with the cops and this led to his detention. Infuriated with his detention, the station master of Fatehgarh, who is the brother-in-law of Aditya, allegedly gheraoed RPF personnel, while other railway employees detained the Tatanagar-Chappra train.

Speaking to TOI, station in-charge of RPF, Fatehgarh, said, "Our man who came from Kayamganj for checking duty was manhandled by railway employees who were against the detention of the accused, Aditya. We released him after issuing a challan under the Railway Act 147 (Trespass and refusal to desist from trespass). But the matter has been shared to senior officials, and they are on their way to investigate it further."