Title - Women unsafe in UP trains

Lucknow : The arrest and suspension of IAS officer Shashi Bhushan who harassed a girl in a Lucknow-bound train in October this year was expected to curb the molestation incidents in trains.But that was not to be. At least five incidents of molestation of women had been reported in trains in the state in the past three months alone. In all the cases, the police arrested the accused, but they were released on bail either by the cops or the courts.A case of molestation bid was reported from the prestigious Rajdhani Express train. A 21-year old engineering student was allegedly molested by a pantry car employee in the Rajdhani Express in October this year.The victim, who had boarded the train at Gaya and was travelling to Delhi, was allegedly molested by the drunk pantry car worker Ameen Sheikh while she was asleep. The matter was reported to the GRP at Mughalsarai and the accused was arrested.A few days later, some youths allegedly molested a girl in a local train that shuttled between Lucknow and Kanpur. The molesters were caught by the other passengers and handed over to the GRP. They were however given bail from the police station.Two more cases of molestation bids were later reported from other trains in the state. Railway police officials admit that many cases do not get reported as the women do not want to the take the trouble.The railway authorities had recently put women escorts on duty in trains to instill confidence among the women passengers but they were later withdrawn owing to lack of sufficient number of women cops.

“In the majority of cases, the cops impose lighter sections on the molesters as a result of which the accused easily get bail,” says Ashok Pandey, a Lucknow-based lawyer.

Pandey emphasises the need for invoking harsher sections of the IPC against molesters so that they have to spend some time in the jail before being enlarged on the bail.

With cases of molestation not being taken to their logical end, the womenfolk continue to face harassment and molestation in the speeding trains in Uttar Pradesh. Even the case involving the IAS officer is moving at a snail's pace. Investigation didn’t come to a conclusion even on completion of three months of the incident.