06 February,2017 06:00 AM IST | | Rupsa Chakraborty
Shocking! Rude Railway Police Force makes fun of citizen for calling in four unmanned trunks on Mumbai suburban train as they turn out to be Army luggage
RPF mocks 'alert' Mumbai commuter, brands him 'troublemaker'
Heeding explicit instructions of the Railway Police Force is no longer appreciated. After repeated appeals to citizens to stay alert about unmanned baggage on trains, when Kapil J (26) did just that after seeing two people leave four trunks in the women's compartment, he was called a troublemaker.
However, what is scary is the laissez-faire attitude of the Army, whose baggage it ultimately turned out to be.
Kapil, who works in the financial sector, was on a local from Chembur to CST around 5.30 pm on Saturday, when the train halted at Tilaknagar and two men in blue outfits dropÂped the four trunks in the adjacent women's compartment, that was empty, and got off. Considering Mumbai's history with attacks on locals, the men in the compartment started to panic, while Kapil called the helpline. When the train stopped at Wadala, a railway official accompanied by a cop, came to investigate and determined that the boxes were keÂpt by Army officials and were to be delivered to CST. Kapil, who also got off the train to help them, however, said, "How would anyone know if it is kept by the Army or a terrorist? None of the metal directors function properly, and there was nobody accompanying the boxes."
Things spiralled downwards as officials allegedly got rude, used cuss words and mocked him, saying, "C'''''a hai kya tu? Aisa sab ke liye complain karta hai, humko yahan tak aana pada. Dikhta nahi tere ko, yeh guard ka hai, yahan âguard' likha hai?" (Are you mad? You complain for every little thing and we've to come all the way here. Can't you see, âguard' is written on the box?)
Matter gets worse
He once again called the helpline and was instructed to file a complaint with the stationmaster at CST. Kapil heÂaded to CST railway office, but things got uglier there.
"When I asked the official to take my complaint about the carelessness," said Kapil, "they started shouting. They threatened to get me arrested. Around five officials even gathered around me. This kind of behaviour is insensitive. If people face such harassment, a responsible passenger can't dare to inform the police of an untoward incident."
Finally, an RPF officer came to his rescue by taking down his complaint and promised to look into it.
Meanwhile, Central Railway spokesperson AK Singh agreed that leaving unmanned boxes contributes to panic among passengers.
"We don't allow anyone to leave behind things on trains. It is obvious that passengers will panic. I don't know how this happened, and why his complaint was not taken, but I will look into it," AK Singh said, speaking to mid-day.