Nightmare in Bihar Trains

by Ashok Pandey

July 14, 2006

India, with one of the world’s largest railway networks, has about 9,000 passenger trains running on the tracks every single day carrying more than 14 million passengers. Around 11,000 cases of crime - murder, dacoity, rape and theft of luggage - were committed in trains or at railway premises and registered in 2005. Railway Police have registered about 2,700 crime cases in the first three months of 2006. A significant number of these crimes are taking place in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The next time you want to board a train, you may like to exercise some extra caution - a crime takes place inside trains or at railway premises every 30 minutes, shows official data. While we are more interested to know the crime patterns, its rates and the problem faced by the common man while travelling in Bihar, let us look what has happened in the past in our own beloved state of Bihar.

The most tragic incident was, a retired DIG from Bihar Anil Kumar Singh was shot dead in a running train in first week of June 2006. An armed gang shot him and robbed passengers in an air-conditioned coach of the Rajendra Nagar-Lokmanya Tilak Superfast Express near Patna station. The assailants shot Mr. Singh when he tried to resist them in their mission of loot and dacoity in the train. Singh later died in the hospital.

Recently, passenger Shaukat Ali was shot in the head when he resisted an attempt by dacoits to loot him in Puri-New Delhi Neelanchal Express train between Tankuppa and Bansi Nala stations in Gaya district. The dacoits, who boarded the train at Koderma station, looted cash, ornaments, mobile phones and other valuables worth around Rs 3 lakh from passengers. In an another incident of train dacoity, valuables worth about Rs 2 lakh had been looted from passengers in a general class bogie of Patna-New Jalpaiguri Capital express train between Fatuha and Banka ghat railway stations in Patna district. When the incident was taking place the government railway police escort was alleged to have taken shelter under the berths. Assistant sub-inspector of the escort Shivkant Tiwari and six of the party have been placed under suspension for dereliction of duty.

Most of the crimes are reported from the Kiul-Patna, Gaya-Patna and Gaya-Mughalsarai sections. The Baruani-Samastipur section had so far remained silent, now it has also started witnessing crimes in trains. A couple of months back, nearly a dozen gangsters boarded the train coming from Howrah at Barauni and began looting the passengers soon after the express left the station. The robbers targeted three bogies of the train and took time to rob the passengers of lakhs of rupees, jewelries and valuables.

Some times back, an Army jawan, Sunil Dutt, had been thrown off the running Mahananda Express by four drunken criminals near Bihia railway station between Danapur and Mughalsarai sections of the East Central Railway.

Can you guess the train name which holds the record of maximum number of dacoities? You will be surprised to know that Palamu Express, which runs between Patna in Bihar and Daltonganj in Jharkhand, has the dubious distinction of being perhaps the only train in the country in which the maximum numbers of dacoities have been committed - over 125!

Let’s have a look at some of the glaring crime in the rails in past 2-3 years.

On May 25 2004, armed criminals looted passengers of the Sahebganj-Danapur Inter-City Express between Bakhtiarpur and Fatuha stations on the main line section of the Danapur division of East Central Railway (ECR). Valuables worth over Rs 30,000 were looted.

Two days later i.e. on 27th May dacoits struck 3483 Up Howrah-Bhiwani Farakka Express between Raghunathpur and Buxar stations on the mainline section of the Danapur division and shot dead a BSF sub-inspector Balwant Singh, travelling in S-3 coach, when he resisted them. Valuables worth over Rs 1 lakh were looted.

On June 2 the same year, a dacoity was committed in the Patna-Puri Express train between Jamui and Jha Jha stations of the Danapur division. Criminals numbering six to eight robbed the passengers of their valuables worth over Rs 1 lakh at gunpoint. Over a dozen passengers received minor injuries.

The very next day i.e. on 3rd of June, six criminals looted passengers of the prestigious Dehradun-Howrah Express between Anugrah Narain Road and Guraru stations (Bihar) on the Grand Chord section of Mughalsarai division. One Indra Bahadur Singh of Bhadoi (UP), travelling in the S-7 coach, was killed and six others were injured. Valuables worth over Rs 1 lakh were looted.

On June 8 the same year, anti-social elements, identified as pick-pockets, entered a compartment of Vikramshila Express at Bhagalpur and assaulted several passengers. In another incident, about 20 labourers travelling by Shahid Express on their way back from Punjab were forced to part with their hard-earned money — a total of over Rs 50,000 — between Mairwa and Siwan stations.

The same year some other incidents of crime in trains:

9 June Howrah-Danapur Exp. - 2 killed in AC coach; 16 June Gaya-Howrah Exp. - Bihar bandit looted train, 12 assaulted; 24 June Mumbai-Howrah Exp. - serious loot and violence; 24 June Patliputra Exp. - Jharkhand passengers robbed; 25 June Jha Jha-Patna Passenger - serious loot of passengers; 1 July Patna-Gaya Passenger - decoit shot three commuters.

Apart from the criminal activities, corruption is another area of concern for the Railway Minister. From ticket booking to catering on the train, from reservation in railway guest houses to the tendering of the rail contracts, no facet of railways is corruption free. Everything is available at a cost but this money does not go into the coffers of the railways.

The other problems which draw attention are those of created by beggars, unauthorized traders, and wait-listed passengers. The problems begin the moment the train leaves the originating station. The vendors and beggars soon take over, converting the train into a "mobile supermarket" selling fruits, groundnuts, toys, mango, cucumber, stickers, video and audio compact discs, posters of leaders, junk food and books and magazines. Adding to the travellers woes is the unending stream of handicapped persons, women carrying children in their arms and singing mendicants. Most of the coaches in these trains are supposed to be reserved. However, wait-listed passengers and passengers sans reservation occupy every inch of available space.

There are some other groups of passengers especially Joru-ka-Bhai cluster who thinks that the Indian Railway is their own 'jamindaari' and 'bapuati'. A few weeks ago, an MLA from Sheohar Ajit Kumar Jha, his wife and mother were "de-trained" at Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly traveling on invalid train tickets. The trio were reportedly going from Varanasi to Patna on the Punjab Mail. Ajit Kumar Jha, son of RJD MP Raghunath Jha, was intercepted by officials of the Commercial Department of Indian Railways. During checking the MLA was found to be traveling on an invalid train ticket along with his wife and mother.

Recently, the popular Joru-ka-Bhai Mr Subhash Yadav, forced officers at Patna railway station to make the Rajdhani Express leave from platform 1. Mr Lalu Yadav’s other popular brother-in-law, Sadhu Yadav, tried to do the same thing with another train the next day. The eldest in the Joru-ka-Bhai cluster, Prabhunath Singh Yadav, allegedly got into a fight with the staff of pantry car in the New Delhi bound Rajdhani Express. Mr Yadav was traveling with three 'extra' persons in the AC I coupe and wanted the pantry staff to serve food to all of them. The staff refused, saying the men did not have tickets. He then kicked up a row till the coach superintendent intervened.

Apart from crimes, the serious lack of coordination between the two forces responsible for railway security namely Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) leaves ample room for crime play. The GRP being a part of the state police and is responsible for the security of the passengers on the train. But the State police have a casual approach towards crime on trains as it is rarely discussed in the State assembly. This is in spite of the fact that Indian Railways (IR) bears 50 per cent of the expenditure that the State government incurs on the GRP. The RPF on the other hand is a paramilitary force under the Railway Ministry (all the other paramilitary forces, except the Coast Guard Services which fall under the Defence Ministry, come under the Home Ministry) and through it tries to supplement the efforts of the State governments in controlling crime on the railways. It is mainly responsible for the protection of railway property and freight. Thus, rail security hinges on the high-tension centre-state relations which are often very strained. The result is chaos. Even President Abdul Kalam has expressed concern at this bifurcation of responsibility. A couple of weeks back, while presenting colours to the RPF in Delhi he remarked that "there is the need to remove the division of responsibility between the GRP and RPF" and to empower the RPF with the legal sanction to tackle all cognisable offences under the Indian Penal Code and all special Acts so that there would be a “single-point responsibility for tackling crimes against passengers”.

To conclude with, the article is an attempt to highlight the crimes, and the problems faced by the common passengers traveling with a valid ticket, through the Readers Write forum of PatnaDaily. I strongly request the concerned authorities of the state government and the Indian Railways through this English daily to think deeply and come out with some good plans to fix the problem as soon as possible, so that the common man can travel safely. Comments are welcome.

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