Group forcing man to say ‘Jai Shree Ram’ on Madgaon Express booked

A case has been registered against an unidentified student and a Chembur resident after a quarrel broke out on a train in India. The Chembur resident alleges that the student harassed his family by shouting slogans and throwing tea on his child. The police have registered a case against the unidentified person and the Chembur man. The case has been transferred to the Kankavli police station.

NAVI MUMBAI: In an unsavoury incident that took place before the consecration in Ayodhya, the Panvel railway police registered a case against an unidentified student travelling on the Madgaon-LTT Express as well as a Chembur resident after a quarrel broke out on board the train between Kankavali and Panvel railway stations on Saturday.

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According to the complaint lodged by the Chembur resident, who was travelling with his wife and two kids, the family was harassed by a group of students who boarded the train from Kankavali and kept raising slogans in the compartment.

“From the time they boarded on Friday afternoon, they created a ruckus by shouting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans but we ignored them. Then they started singing ‘Mere Bharat ka baccha bacha Jai Shree Ram bolega’. They saw that we were not participating, and one of them approached us and warned us to repeat the lines after them. We appealed to them to leave us alone. But they started harassing us even more and also threw a cup of tea on my child,” recalled the 27-year-old electrical contractor.

He then sought the help of the ticker checker. “While the TC was around, they stopped their harassment, but after he left, they began again,” he said. “I then called up the railway helpline, where a rep promised us help on reaching Panvel railway station. On reaching, we saw political party mobs and policemen already present but the police showed no interest in lodging our complaint.”

The victim further alleged that the police told him to drop the matter, but he was adamant, as he and his family had faced harassment for a long time. “Finally, they lodged an FIR, but despite knowing the names and details of the men who were harassing us, they registered it against an ‘unknown person’,” he said. “The men then brought in a girl from their group. She was not even a part of the clash, but they demanded that the police register a case against me for outraging her modesty.” The Chembur family is now trying to get the CCTV footage to prove its story.

When contacted, Pravin Padvi, senior inspector, Panvel Railway Police, refused to divulge details of the students, and said the case had now been transferred to Kankavli police station. Yogesh Chile, MNS head of Raigad district, said he knew the students but refused to share details. “The story narrated by the Chembur family is false,” he claimed. “There were only five students, of whom four were boys and one was a girl. They were from a college in Kankavali and going to Thane for some exhibition. They were playing ‘antakshari’ in the train, and on the letter ‘bh’, they sang ‘Bharat baccha baccha Jai Shree Ram bolega’. This irked the Chembur resident, who started arguing with them.

Chile claimed that by the time the train reached Panvel station, mobs of both the groups were waiting there to support their respective sides. “Since, during the scuffle, the man pulled the hand of the girl, a case of outraging modesty was registered against him,” he said.

The case against the ‘unidentified person’ was registered under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 504 (anyone who intentionally insults another person, knowing it could provoke them to disturb public peace or commit another offense) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC while the Chembur man was booked under the Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (anyone who intentionally insults another person, knowing it could provoke them to disturb public peace or commit another offense) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.