RPF constable shoots dead senior, 3 passengers on board Jaipur-Mumbai train
Mumbai (PTI): A Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable on Monday shot dead four persons on board a running train near Palghar railway station in Maharashtra, an official said.
Constable Chetan Kumar Choudhary fired from his automatic weapon, killing an RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) and three other passengers of the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express shortly after 5 am, the official said.
According to a senior police official, the accused RPF constable was mentally unstable.
Palghar is around 100 km from Mumbai.
The constable opened fire on his escort duty in-charge ASI Tika Ram Meena in the running train, the official said.
After killing his senior, the constable went to another bogie and shot dead three passengers, the official added.
The accused then tried to escape from the train between Mira Road and Dahisar, but was later nabbed by the Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel and his weapon was also seized, he said.
The accused, who hails from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, is in the custody of the Mira Road railway police, the official said.
The bodies were taken out of the train at Borivali railway station, he said.
According to railway officials, four RPF personnel, including constable Choudhary, were escorting the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express from Surat station in Gujarat on Monday.
The four-member team earlier escorted Dadar-Porbandar Saurashtra Express up to Surat station the previous day. On return journey, the escorting party was guarding the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express, a senior railway official said.
The escort parties generally have four to five personnel of the GRP and RPF in a long distance train. They provide security to trains in their respective railway divisions and thereafter, counterparts from other divisions take over the responsibility of guarding the trains.
Western Railway's (WR) chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur told PTI that the accused constable was attached to the Lower Parel RPF post here, while ASI Tika Ram Meena was attached to the Dadar RPF post.
The Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express departed from Jaipur station in Rajasthan at 2.01 pm on Sunday and reached Surat station, where the escort party boarded the train, at 2.47 am on Monday.
Before reaching Borivali station in Mumbai at 6.21 am, about 25 minutes late than its scheduled time, the train stopped at its official halt Vapi in Gujarat, from where it departed one minute late at 4.08 am, as per the official running status of the train.
Thakur said an alarm chain pulling happened in the train near Dahisar station, where the accused constable jumped and ran away, before being caught at Mira Road.
The train was held up at Borivali station for about an hour from 6.21 am to 7.15 am, before it left from there and reached its final destination Mumbai Central station at 8.07 am, about 1.12 hours late, as per the train's running status.
Meanwhile, an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh has been announced for the kin of deceased ASI Meena, a senior Western Railway official said.
Meena's kin will be given Rs 15 lakh from the Railway Suraksha Kalyan Nidhi (fund), apart from funeral expenses of Rs 20,000, WR spokesperson Sumit Thakur said.
His kin will also get a sum from the death-cum-retirement gratuity and group insurance scheme, the official said.
Asked about compensation for the families of the other three victims of the train firing incident, Thakur said, "Ex-gratia will be given."
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
