The Bihar Railway Police have booked two persons, one of them an Army jawan, for attempting to molest a woman on a train. The woman jumped out of the moving train in desperation to escape the harassment. The police have ruled out rape.
The incident took place on Thursday on the Dibrugarh-Delhi Brahmaputra Mail. The woman had gone to the toilet where she was followed by the jawan, identified as Ramesh Kumar of 20 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles. Unable to bear the harassment, the 30-year-old woman jumped off the train near Ara junction in Bhojpur district.
“Her knees and heels are badly bruised and she has severe blisters on her feet,” Pramila Kumari, project manager of the Patna Women’s Helpline, who visited the victim at the Patna Medical College Hospital, told The Hindu .
The police arrested Ramesh, a resident of Himachal Pradesh, and his friend Dinesh Kumar. “Dinesh also hails from Himachal, but was working as a driver in Patna. Ramesh called him to the station. They were both on the train,” Rail Superintendent of Police Suresh Chaudhary told The Hindu .
The duo has been booked under Section 354 (outraging modesty), 306 (abetment of suicide), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 323 (causing hurt) and 334 (voluntarily causing hurt on provocation).
The victim was first admitted to a hospital in Ara and later shifted to Patna for treatment. “She is in a stable condition. She underwent psychiatric analysis and medicines have been prescribed,” PMCH superintendent Dr. O.P. Choudhary told The Hindu .
Ms. Kumari said the victim “appeared to be mentally imbalanced.”
“She said she was molested by four to five people. She was very clear in her description and gave details of her family back home. She said she was seated when the harassment started. She jumped when the train was taking a U-turn and its speed was therefore low. She ran one kilometre after that. We don’t know if she has a history of mental illness or if she is under severe shock,” Ms. Kumari said.
