Title - 3 days on, no complaint in motorman attack case

MUMBAI: Three days after a Western Railway (WR) motorman was assaulted by a group of passengers at Vile Parle station, nobody has come forward to lodge an FIR with the Government Railway Police (GRP). Armed with a video of the attack shot by an eyewitness, the GRP is now trying to trace the culprits. In the absence of an FIR, officials say they will be forced to take only preventive action against the accused.On Saturday, motorman DK Bansal was steering a local when it mowed down two railway gangmen-Sheshrao Sawant (55) and Dhirendra Kumar (26)-working on the tracks. Bansal halted the train and got off with the guard, NM Gautam, to attend to the victims. By then, a few commuters pounced on Gautam and started hitting him.Another group caught hold of Bansal and began abusing him, refusing to listen to his explanation. They thrashed him and pulled at his clothes. Eventually, Bansal got down onto the tracks and angrily asked the men to run him over, in a bid to stop the assault.

"Bansal has given us a written statement that he does not want to lodge a complaint against anyone and that the assault took place in the heat of the moment. Ideally, the railway administration should have lodged an FIR the same day," said senior inspector Tukaram Shinde, Andheri GRP. "Bansal could not have applied the brakes all of a sudden on spotting the gangmen on the tracks as that could have caused a derailment. Usually, gangmen are aware of train schedules and always move out of the way when a train approaches."

The GRP has begun an enquiry on its own. "If an FIR is not lodged by the time we trace the accused, preventive action will be taken against them under section 109 of the Criminal Procedure Code," Shinde added.

Meanwhile, angry WR motormen have threatened to stop trains if there is a repeat of the Vile Parle incident. A member of the Western Railway Motormen Association (WRMA) said, "We will not hesitate to stop services if a similar incident occurs in future." The association will also submit a memorandum to the divisional railway manager of Mumbai division and WR's general manager to demand registration of an FIR against unknown commuters for assaulting the motorman.

"The administration has failed to protect or support the motorman. He should have been rewarded for running the train despite being assaulted. The administration has taken a passive approach because it holds a grudge against us," another WRMA member said.