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Journalism of Courage
The Bombay High Court Wednesday directed a three-member committee comprising members from the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to look into the case in which a 22-year-old student was allegedly molested on a train last week.
A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice S B Shukre was hearing several petitions pertaining to the safety of women. Lawyers appearing for the petitioners expressed serious concern over the August 6 incident. The victim, who had boarded the compartment at the Grant Road station, was allegedly molested by a 19-year-old youth who later jumped off at the Charni Road station. The GRP registered a case on August 7.
“We direct the head of the department of the GRP and the chief security commissioner of the RPF, both Central and Western, to pursue the issue being raised in the petition, along with the train issue,” said the HC. The bench has asked this three-member committee to submit its report within two weeks.
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“With regard to the incident of molestation reported, we want to know if any complaint has been registered by GRP and if any steps have been taken by the monitoring committee to oversee if security personnel are reporting for duty and manning the women compartments,” added the HC.
Appearing for NGO Help Mumbai Foundation, advocate Rajiv Chavan said the railway police said security personnel could not get on to the train due to a “technical difficulty”, leading to the serious incident.
The court has also directed the state government’s home department to inform it about the number of RPF and GRP personnel deployed to ensure security of passengers in women compartments and if CCTV cameras have been installed in all such coaches. The advocates for the railways said while some of the women’s coaches of the Western Railway had CCTV cameras, no such system was in place in the Central Railway.
The HC said it was time to look beyond age-old systems and look at upgrading infrastructure. “There are long orders which are passed but nothing comes from their side (government and railways). No one is looking at providing a hundred per cent solution but options that are available should be explored to prevent what is possible,” said the HC.
ruhi.bhasin@expressindia.com
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