A
woman travelling from New Jalpaiguri station in north Bengal on the
Dibrugarh-Delhi Brahmaputra Express had to jump off the train to escape
r*pe.
According
to railway officials, the woman was attacked near Ara, 50km west of
Patna, by an army officer, identified as Rakesh Kumar, on her way to the
bathroom. Seeing no escape route she jumped out of the moving train.
The accused was captured by a co-passenger A.D. Upadhyaya, another army
man attached to Assam Rifles, and was handed over to the police at Buxar
railway station.
“It
is quite miraculous that she has survived. The train at that point of
time was running at top speed,” said an official of the North Eastern
Railway. “She was brought to the Ara railway station on a track
maintenance trolley by railway employees. The woman is now being treated
at a hospital in Bihar and is said to be out of danger.”
The
district magistrate of Bhojpur Pratima S. Verma told newsmen over the
phone; “The woman is in danger and is being monitored by doctors. She
has suffered severe injuries on her head and legs. She will be shifted
to Patna for further treatment and then to Delhi or Darjeeling according
to her family’s wishes. We have informed her parents who are on their
way.”
The victim is a mother of twins, who was travelling to spend time with her husband who works in Delhi.
This
incident has again brought to focus the safety of women on public
transport systems in India. There were angry protests by activist groups
at railway stations as they demanded protection for women travelling by
train. “The woman was travelling in an air-conditioned compartment. If
this is the kind of security the railway provides in compartments which
is considered as higher class, then imagine the plight of women in the
general compartments,” said a non-governmental organization working for
women.
“There
is a railway police force which is supposed to guard passengers. But
they are so corrupt that they only focus on how to earn additional money
by harassing people and taking bribes from them for less serious crime
like smoking,” said Ayan Ghosh, a railway commuter. [GN]
No comments:
Post a Comment