RailEnquiry

Mumbai:
After a lull of several months following a crackdown by the Government Railway Police, groups of youths are back to performing stunts on Mumbai’s local trains.According to complaints filed by passengers with the GRP, groups of youth often skate on platforms holding on to moving trains and jump on board in the nick of time as their coach moves out of the station. “Passengers have complained that the youths also harass women standing on the platforms,” PP Pandey, an officer of the GRP stationed at Borivali in the Western Railway said.The stunt performances came to light last year after several youths posted visuals of their acts on social networking sites. “Most of the boys are in the 15 to 25 year age groups and do these things out of peer pressure,” says an official of the Central Railway.Following complaints, the authorities carried out raids at several railway stations this week with police personnel in plain clothes nabbing 25 boys over two days.

In all, 24 police personnel were deployed at several stations to nab these boys. While some of them recorded their stunts on mobile phones to show off among their peers, the police personnel themselves filmed several of them trying various tricks on board moving trains.

GRP officials say most of the boys picked up were below 18 years of age and were influenced by older boys they were associating with.