Mumbai, January 08: The Government Railway Police’s helpline service, launched in November last year, proved its effectiveness yet again when it helped rescue an 18-year-old girl who was being molested by a youth in a Howrah-bound train on Thrusday night.
Though the incident occurred in the wee hours, while the train why plying between Nashik and Manmad, the on board railway police arrived at the spot within 20 minutes of the complaint.
Smita Das (name changed to protect identity) boarded a sleeper coach in Kolkata Mail, which left Mumbai CST at around 9.30 pm on Thrusday.
When the train was running between Nashik and Manmad stations past midnight, a co-passenger, aged about 19, tried to touch her, and started passing lewd comments. Smita, who was travelling alone, told him off, but to no avail.
Smita then contacted her father in Mumbai on her cell phone and narrated the incident, who remembered the railway police helpline number, and called in for help.
Assistant police inspector SM Gidde, who was manning the helpline, said, “I directed the Manmad railway police station to check the coach. They informed the on board Railway Protection Force personnel on their mobile phones. The RPF personnel rushed to the coach and arrested the youth within 20 minutes.”
The youth, Ashok Singh, 19, hails from Jharkhand. He has been handed over to Manmad railway police for investigation, Gidde said.
—-Agencies