The spot where 41-year-old K. Loganathan was fatally stabbed by an unidentified gang at the Tambaram railway station on Friday night is less than a hundred metres away from both the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) police stations.
None of the officials attached to these two stations is willing to comment on why policemen on duty failed to prevent the crime.
“RPF Tambaram faces a shortage of 22 personnel. As many as 12 policemen were transferred on charges of abuse of power,” said a senior officer.”
None of the 26 closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) installed at the railway station picked up any visual of the attackers, as the scene of crime was beyond their reach.
“Loganathan was at the northern end of Platform No. 2. He was stabbed between 10.50 p.m and 11 p.m., when he was noticed lying in a pool of blood by commuters and railway staff,” a senior GRP officer said. “We have obtained leads and are confident of nabbing the assailants in few days,” an officer said.
Investigators are puzzled why Loganathan, working as a supervisor in a private shipping company at Harbour, got down at Tambaram, as he would alight at the previous station, Tambaram Sanatorium, every day. A resident of Lakshmi Nagar in Chitlapakkam, he used to park his motorcycle near the Sanatorium railway station.
On Friday, he withdrew Rs. 10,000 from an ATM near Chennai Beach station and called his wife Snehalakshmi around 8 p.m, informing her that he would be home in an hour. He alighted at Platform 7 and walked across the tracks till Platform 2, when he was attacked, sources said.
Meanwhile, commuters are shocked at the attack. “Security has to be stepped up immediately. Armed policemen have to be on duty at all railway stations till the last train leaves,” said R.A.Mukunthan of Perungalathur.
