Chaos as magistrate avenges 'slight'

KOLKATA: A magistrate who was challenged when he tried to enter the motorman’s cabin on a local train unleashed a chain of events that halted train services on the busy Sealdah section for five hours on Saturday afternoon and left over 500,000 passengers stranded.
Railway fourth fast-track court magistrate Mintu Mullick was at the Lake Gardens station when the crowded SG 13 Up Budge Budge-Sealdah local arrived.He went up to the driver’s cabin, but was challenged by motorman Dipak Sarkar. "Do you know who I am? I can get you dismissed from service," Mullick reportedly told Sarkar. Faced with the threat, Sarkar called guard Manoj Mondal over. The two talked it over and let Mullick board the motorman’s cabin.
But once in Sealdah, Mullick took the ‘slight’ to heart. He immediately complained to Government Railway Police, claiming he’d been harassed by the motorman and the guard. The two were promptly taken into custody.
This was around 11.15 am. The news of the ‘arrests’ spread like wildfire. Immediately, 1,800 motormen and guards went on a wildcat strike, halting train services. Another 1,200 railway staff attached to BR Singh Hospital, Narkeldanga car shed, Sonarpur car shed, electric general and signal section joined the agitation, demanding the unconditional release of the duo and an apology from the magistrate.
Around midday, the station premises resembled a battlefield with passengers clashing with RPF personnel.
Matters took a turn for the worse when another driver, Pradeep Kumar Singh, tried to forcibly enter the courtroom presided over by Mullick in the Sealdah station complex, where the other two had been taken. Singh, too, was arrested.
There was absolute chaos after that with railwaymen baying for the magistrate’s blood in the corridors and the police holding them back from the courtroom. When Singh was put in the lockup, railwaymen switched off power connection to the courtroom.
The situation was brought under control after 4 pm when Sarkar and Mondal were released without any charges and Singh was granted bail. But by then, the station manager’s room had been ransacked, television sets and display panels smashed and several passengers injured in the RPF lathicharge. The general manager has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Senior railway officers said travelling in the motorman or guard’s cabin was illegal for all except senior officers or those with proper authorisation. A motorman or guard can be suspended if he allows an unauthorised person to travel with him. “This rule has to be enforced for passenger safety,” an officer said.