An IRCTC employee is now battling for his life after two passengers travelling on the Sealdah Rajdhani Express brutally assaulted him on Monday evening. This incident happened while the train was in the vicinity of Gaya.
As per the complaint which has been filed by the train’s manager; the victim named Sushanta Behera, a workman-3 grade employee, was on duty as an attendant in the AC tree tier coach, B-9.
The complaint claims that after dinner was served to the passengers, he went to the pantry car to bring a carton of ice-cream to be distributed as dessert. While coming back with the carton, the train gave a sudden jerk and the carton as a result brushed against one of the passengers in the B-13 coach.
This incensed the passenger named Mohammed Zaid, brutally thrashed the railway employee till he lost consciousness. As a result of this, his fellow passengers proceeded to alert the on-board security staff. Following that the accused passenger and his uncle M Quraishi tried to play down the incident, but were detained by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel. They were later handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP).
The victim on the other hand was rushed to the Railway hospital in Gaya where the doctors detected brain injury and recommended that he be sent to Kolkata. He as a result was shifted to the Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in Kolkata but his condition later deteriorated. The doctors claim that he has suffered serious injuries to his brain and spine which has rendered the left part of his body paralysed.
The two passengers in question who hail from Park Circus area of Kolkata have been booked under the attempt to murder section of the IPC.
The instances of passengers assaulting railway employees are nothing new.
Recently it was reported how a German tourist who had alleged that he was assaulted by a railway employee in UP, had himself proceeded to attack two GRP men while they were taking him to a police station.
This habit of beating up railway personnel also extends to across the border. It was reported that passengers travelling the Sargodha-Karachi Hazara Express in Pakistan, started beating the railway staff on board after the train’s engine failed and it got delayed by over three hours.