It has been a month since 35-year-old Kurla resident, Shahnawaz Shaikh, was allegedly assaulted by three Railway Protection Force (RPF) constables at Kurla Terminus, after he refused to pay Rs 100 as extortion.
But the railway police have not even identified all the accused in the case.
One of the accused was identified as Balasaheb Nabde, an RPF constable, now suspended. But he is absconding.
The Government Railway Police (GRP) allege that the RPF has not been cooperating with them as a result of which they are finding it difficult to go ahead with the probe. “When our officials ask for any details pertaining to the cases, they refuse to cooperate,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Vasant Koregaonkar, GRP Central Railway.
This is not the only case where allegations of lack of cooperation between the two forces have been made.
On July 22, 2008, four RPF constables had allegedly extorted Rs 1,500 from Kapil Tiwari (39), a resident of Dahisar, at Kurla station. On December 11, 2008, a group of RPF constables had allegedly extorted Rs 5,000 from Samsul Shaikh (25), a Dharavi resident.
However, both case files are gathering dust and no arrests have been made.
{{/usCountry}}However, both case files are gathering dust and no arrests have been made.
{{/usCountry}}“We asked RPF officials to allow us to question their staff but they refused to hand them over to us. We wanted to carry out an identification parade, as without identifying the accused we can’t go ahead with the case,” said a senior GRP official, requesting anonymity.
However, senior divisional security commissioner, Central Railway, S.C. Parhi said, “We are not aware of the December 2008 extortion case but as far as July 2008 case is concerned, the victim Kapil Tiwari later submitted an affidavit to us saying that the GRP men had forced him to file the complaint.”
In the Kurla terminus case, the RPF had suspended constable Nabde and was conducting an internal inquiry against him, he said.