Mob turned violent as cops began lathicharge: Diva station commuters

The complete breakdown of law and order at the suburban Diva railway station could have been avoided that at least is what eyewitnesses are claiming People at the station said that the crowd couldnrsquot take it any more when on top of suffering due to the delay police began a lathichargeRail disruption The real reason behind the chaos at Diva railway stationWhile some passengers decided to vent their anger at yet another CR breakdown yesterday the retaliation from the security forces was indiscriminate and ensured that many innocent commuters also got caught in the melee An official prepares to hit a passenger really hard at Diva station even as a rioter throws stones in the backgroundFurious commuters at Diva staged a rail roko after a pantograph of a CSTbound local train broke delaying services early in the morning According to locals commuters had indeed blocked the railway lines but were protesting peacefully Things took a turn for the worse when 10odd officials from the Railway Protection Force allegedly resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the crowdsIn scenes reminiscent of much bigger riots policemen could be seen chasing protestors and ordinary commuters down the tracksRamdas Kedari a local resident recalled ldquoThe crowd was under control after members of the Diva commutersrsquo union urged them to maintain peace However RPF officials started hitting a few people and this fuelled the entire incident This is the treatment we get on top of the shoddy service The railways have always ignored the plight of the people from Kalwa Mumbra and DivardquoldquoWe were standing on the tracks listening to the commutersrsquo union However the RPF officials suddenly started hitting people irrespective of their gender and age This angered the crowd and people started pelting stones on the train and damaged the railway propertyrdquo said Sunil Waghmare another commuterCommuters came to the aid of a bleeding passenger and helped him receive medical attentionAdesh Bhagat president of the commutersrsquo body Diva Railway Pravasi Sanghatna concurred ldquoThe plight of commuters from Mumbra and Diva has been ignored for many years The railways conduct mega blocks every week but this doesnrsquot reflect in the services Technical failures on this stretch are frequent Hence commuters were upset and staged a protestrdquoBoth commuters and policemen were cowering the former fearing the sharp crack of a lathi against their bodies and the latter ducking whizzing stonesVandals and thievesThe angry mob went on a rampage pelting stones damaging property and even resorting to stealing A ticket booking clerk at the station revealed that cash to the tune of Rs 70000 and coupons worth Rs 50000 were stolen in the incident ldquoA colleague and I locked ourselves inside a room When we came out everything from furniture to computers had been ransackedrdquo said Sharad Male senior booking clerk at Diva Besides this the crowds also damaged seven automatic ticket vending machines ATVMs turned the stationmasterrsquos office upside down and set fire to a bike and two police jeeps parked outsideS Jaiswal assistant security commissioner of RPF was injured along with four officials from the Railway Police Special Force one RPF guard and two motormen