TTE ‘beats up, kicks’ passenger out of moving train, who vanishes

Moradabad: A travelling ticket examiner (TTE) allegedly assaulted and kicked a passenger out of a running train near a station a short distance from Rampur junction on Sunday night. While railway officials have registered statements of eye witnesses supporting this fact, the TTE has claimed that the passenger jumped by himself from the train when he was asked for a ticket.

The incident allegedly occurred on the Varanasi-Dehradun Janata Express near Shahzadnagar station, 15 km from Rampur Junction, while the train was running at high speed. According to the complaint, Fareed Malik, a passenger on the S1 coach and also the Moradabad district president of Samajwadi Party’s youth wing, “The passenger had boarded the train at Hardoi and was sitting near the wash basin of the coach. At about 9:30 pm, the TTE entered the coach. When he asked the passenger for his ticket, the latter showed him a general coach ticket. They then had an argument which ended with the TTE hitting the passenger and kicking him out of the train while it was still running at high speed.”

“The passengers shouted in protest and tried to pull the chain. The train eventually stopped at Rampur and we filed a complaint with the GRP. The TTE tried to escape in the crowd but we caught him once more in Moradabad,” Malik added. GRP officials then took corroborative statements from the other passengers.

“Following the lodging of the complaint and statements of passengers, we launched a search operation near Shahzadnagar station, up and down the tracks over a distance of 10 km. We did not find any dead or injured passenger, but it is possible that the man, who might be unconscious or dead, is in the bushes somewhere and hasn’t been located yet. We will file an FIR as soon as we recover the body,” said SHO for GRP at Rampur railway station Awdhesh Kumar, talking to TOI, adding that in his defence the TTE, Ashok Kumar, had stated that the passenger jumped from the train by himself as soon as he was asked to show his ticket.

“The body had not been found till Monday afternoon. An enquiry has been ordered into the incident and I have sought a detailed report. If the TTE is found guilty, we will take strict action against him,” said senior divisional manager Pushpraj.

The TTE denied assaulting the passenger. “The allegations against me are baseless. I did not attack or kick the passenger out. I had only asked him to show me his ticket, but he just jumped out of the coach on his own,” said Ashok Kumar, talking to TOI.