Cops throw boy out of train for Rs 10

The Railway Protection Force’s routine task of escorting trains and earning a fast buck on the side was disrupted on Thursday afternoon when one of them threw a 14-year-old hawker out of a running train. Khwaja Jamal reports.

The Railway Protection Force’s routine task of escorting trains and earning a fast buck on the side was disrupted on Thursday afternoon when one of them threw a 14-year-old hawker out of a running train.

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Witnesses, who refused to be identified, said Mohammad Shahabuddin was thrown out of the Gwalior-Barauni Express near Kudhani, 22 km from here, for refusing to pay Rs 10 as protection money.

Shahabuddin, who used to sell eatables on trains in the Sonepur-Muzaffarpur section of the East Central Railway, has lost his left leg and is being treated at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur.

Police sources said the RPF team started extorting money from hawkers as soon as they boarded the train. One of them caught hold of Shahabuddin and demanded Rs 10. Shahabuddin offered Rs 5, saying he had not earned that much yet.

The constables started beating him up. They did not even spare the passengers who tried to intervene. Then, one of them threw out Shahabuddin after looting whatever he had.

Superintendent of Railway Police Amit Lodha said the RPF team escorting the train had been summoned for identification and the guilty constable would be punished.