Title - Mob assaults TC, detains train at Khar

MUMBAI: A mob of commuters assaulted a ticket checker, vandalized the ticket inspector’s office and detained a train for a few minutes at Khar station on Tuesday. Four persons, including a minor, were later arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP).
The ticket checker, Swapnil Pawar, had caught a passenger for travelling in the first class compartment of a Churchgate-bound local, despite his season pass having expired. Pawar escorted the passenger from the foot over bridge, where he was caught, to the inspector’s office. A fine of Rs 330 was levied and a receipt was issued to him around 2.40pm. WR officials said the passenger who had been fined instigated the mob that went on a rampage inside the ticket inspector’s office, damaging furniture and breaking a telephone. They also allegedly manhandled Pawar.
“The mob proceeded towards the railway tracks and attempted to detain a Borivli-bound local (BO-570) by blocking its path. The train was stalled for three minutes from 2.58 to 3.01pm. GRP personnel, who had learnt about the incident by then, rushed to the spot and took four of the accused into custody. The rest of them fled, but we will go through the visuals captured on the CCTVs installed on the platform in a bid to identify them,” said GRP senior inspector V Dhopavkar. There were no CCTVs installed inside the ticket inspector’s office, so the goings-on there cannot be verified independently by the GRP.
The accused were identified as Ganesh Ganve, 27, Sagar Jaitpal, 27, Nilesh Tandae, 33. The fourth is a minor. The accused have been booked under the IPC for unlawful assembly, rioting and assaulting a public servant, besides provisions of the Railway Act.
GRP officials, however, said the passenger who