After a 32-year-old woman passenger was run over by a train at Jalgaon Railway station in north Maharashtra on Thursday morning, her family members lodged a complaint with the local railway police that she was killed after an inebriated Travel Ticket Examiner (TTE) pushed her out of the train.
In spontaneous protests witnessed at the Jalgaon Railway station after Ujwala’s tragic death, the fellow passengers, including her family members, beat up TTE-on-duty Sampat Salunkhe. The Railway police arrested Salunke immediately and booked him under section 304-A of the IPC (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
The incident took place at 6 am at Jalgaon railway station when the lady passenger, Ujwala Pandya, was trying to board the lokmanya Tilak Terminus (lTT)-Rajendra Nagar Patna Express along with her two daughters, as the train began to move out of the station after a brief two-minute halt. Eyewitness accounts said that Khandwa-bound Ujwala, who was carrying a second class ticket, lost her balance when she tried to get into an AC compartment of the train, and fell down in the gap between the train and the platform, and she was killed instantly.
However, according to a complaint lodged by the deceased woman’s nephew Rahul Purohit with the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Jalgaon, Ujwala lost her balance after TTE on duty Salunkhe refused to allow her to enter the train and in fact pushed her out of the train.
Another slightly different version that Ujwala’s relative Kailash Vyas came up with was: the TTE was standing in the door and asked for her ticket. Ujwala showed the ticket to the TTE, after having been asked to do so by the latter. “As the train was already in motion, the TTE extended his hand to take her inside. But, she resisted and told the TTE to move away from the door so that she could jump herself into the train. However, the TTE refused to move. Unable to get into the train, she lost her balance and fell down,” Vyas said.
Both Purohit and Vyas have alleged that the TTE was “drunk” at that point in time.
Ujwala’s tragic death sparked angry protests from her family and other passengers present. Apprehending that he might be lynched by the irate passengers, TTE Salunkhe had hid himself inside the pantry car of the train. However, Salunke was pulled out of the train by the protesters, who beat up badly up before they handed him over to the GRP.
The footage captured by the CCTV cameras installed showed a near-clear picture of what had led to Ujwala’s death.
The CCTV footage showed that the woman and her two daughters had come on to the platform, along with her nephew Purohit, when the train had set into motion. The nephew first managed to help the two young girls board the AC compartment of the train. However, when the woman was trying to board the train, she lost her balance and was not able to land her feet inside the train. She fell into the gap between the train and the platform, and was run over by the train
“The CCTV footage shows TTE Salunke is near the door of the train compartment at that point in time. But, he is clearly is trying to help the lady passenger board the train. There is nothing to show in the CCTV footage that the TTE pushed the lady passenger out of the train,” a senior Railway official based at Jalgaon said.
The allegation made by the deceased passenger’s family members that TTE Salunke was under the influence of alcohol has prima facie turned out to be false.
“A doctor who carried out a breath-analyser test on Salunke found that he was not drunk at that point in time. To be on the safer side, the doctor concerned has taken Salunke’s blood samples which have been for a lab test. The results are awaited,” the railway official said.