20-year-old arrested for throwing iron rod on railway tracks

GRP arrested Abdul Kadir Shaikh for throwing a 15-foot iron rod on railway tracks to sell for drugs, endangering commuters’ lives.

MUMBAI: Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested a man on Saturday for allegedly throwing a 15-foot iron rod on the railway tracks on Thursday night. The GRP officers said that the accused is an addict who stole the iron rod to sell it and buy drugs but threw it and ran away when passersby spotted him.

20-year-old arrested for throwing iron rod on railway tracks

Yogesh Kumar, a motorman on a Harbour line Goregaon-CSTM local train, was operating between Santacruz and Khar Road railway stations on November 21 when his train hit an iron rod at 8.30pm. He immediately halted the train to avert an accident and alerted the station master, who in turn called the Railway Police Force (RPF). After searching the tracks, the RPF officers found no other suspicious objects besides the rod. The next day, RPF sub-inspector Sapna Sharma lodged a complaint with the Bandra GRP against an unidentified person for endangering lives of commuters by throwing an iron rod on the tracks.

The Bandra GRP initially registered an FIR against an unknown person under section 152 (hurting or attempting to hurt persons travelling by railway) of the Railway Act, along with Sections 125(a) (endangering life or personal safety of others), 126(2) (wrongfully restraining), and 329(3) (criminal trespass) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Based on the CCTV footage in the area, the GRP found the accused, Abdul Kadir Samatbrez Shaikh, an addict who resides in a slum in Khar (West). According to the GRP, Shaikh stole the iron rod from a scrap dealer on Thursday night with the motive to sell it to buy drugs. When passersby spotted him, he threw the rod on the track before running away.