TTE booked over death of Navy officer's wife after fall from train in UP
New Delhi (PTI): A ticket examiner was booked for allegedly pushing the wife of a Navy officer to her death from a Patna–Anand Vihar special train near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Friday.
The woman’s family has alleged that the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) pushed her out of the moving train, they said, adding that an FIR has been registered at the Government Railway Police (GRP) office in Etawah on Thursday.
The officials added that at least five co-passengers, in written statements to the Railways, have defended the TTE and said that the woman jumped on her own after he asked her to shift to the general compartment as she was carrying a ticket for another train.
The victim, Arti Yadav, boarded the sleeper coach of a Patna-Anand Vihar special train at around 7:30 am from Kanpur on Tuesday. At around 9:30 am, the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) Santosh Kumar entered the coach and asked her to show her ticket, they said.
"The lady said she had a ticket for another train. The TTE told her to go to the general coach. Then the lady said she would get down at the next station," Anchal Srivastava, a passenger occupying berth number 4—where Arti Yadav had sat after entering the sleeper coach—said in a written statement to the Railways.
Srivastava added, "When the TTE again asked her to shift to the general coach, she said she would jump out of the train. After saying this, she took her bag and jumped out of the train near Bharthna station."
Another passenger, Raj Vaibhav Singh, reiterated Srivastava’s version and added that she threw her Aadhaar card towards the TTE before taking her bag and jumping out of the train, as the coach door was close to the berth she was sitting in.
"I was on berth no 20, but when I heard the TTE and the woman talking to each other, I went to the berth to find out what went wrong," Raj told PTI.
Three other passengers occupying adjoining berths and present during the incident have given similar written statements.
However, Yadav’s husband, Ajay Singh, who serves in the Indian Navy, alleged that she was pushed out of the speeding train by the TTE following an argument.
"The TTE pushed her out of the moving train. Her bag was recovered 4 km away from the body. Her mobile phone is missing. Her back was severely injured, while the front side had no injury marks. This shows foul play," Singh told PTI from her village in Kanpur Dehat.
When informed that co-passengers said she jumped on her own, Singh questioned their version and said, "I came to know that one of the co-passengers, Raj Vaibhav Singh, had called 139 and complained about the TTE’s misbehaviour with my wife. But now, very strangely, he has changed his statement."
Singh further argued, "Kanpur (where she boarded) and Bharthna (where her body was found) are about 130 km apart. If she intended to commit suicide, why would she wait so long? She could have done it soon after the train started speeding."
He also said his wife had recently travelled alone from Mumbai to Kanpur without any issues and denied that she had any mental distress.
"I request the GRP to thoroughly investigate the matter," he said.
In his statement, TTE Kumar said the victim initially claimed she had an AC class ticket for another train (No. 02563) and tried to show it on her phone, but he could only see the train number.
He said he merely asked her to shift to the general coach, after which she threw her Aadhaar card at him, picked up her bag, and jumped out of the train.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
