Three teenagers were detained from Aluva here on Tuesday by the Railway police on charge of throwing stones at a train on New Year’s Day.
The three accused, two of them 17-years-old and the third an 18-year-old, allegedly threw stones at the Thiuvananthapuram-Kannur Jan Shatabdi Express as it was passing by the KSRTC garage at Aluva. The stones had just missed injuring the loco pilot of the vehicle. The police had registered a case under Section 152 of The Railways Act for endangering the safety of passengers. The three were arrested following an investigation led by Dy.SP N. Rajesh.
“The loco pilot had noted the exact location from which the stones were thrown. We were able to centre our investigation around that spot,” said a police officer. The Railway police examined the region to find liquor bottles and a document with the telephone number of a studio. Police used the number to find the accused, one of whom lived a little over a kilometre from where they pelted stones at the train.
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Police said the three students had got together on New Year’s Day and came to the spot to throw stones at passing trains. “It was very fortunate that no one was injured in the incident. The loco pilot or a passenger may have been grievously injured if the stone had hit them,” the officer said.
The city has seen several instances of miscreants throwing stones at passing trains. In one incident, a 10-year-old boy suffered from a fractured skull here last year after a person threw a stone at a train near Edappally. In another incident, a 17-year-old girl not only suffered from a fracture, but also missed an interview that she was on her way to attend.