Youth beaten up in train: NHRC notice to top Railway official

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Chairman, Railway Board and DGP, Madhya Pradesh over reports of “inaction” by RPF and GRP over beating of a youth for hours in a moving train.

The Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of media reports that a young boy was mercilessly beaten by some fellow passengers for hours on board a Mumbai bound train in the night of March 25 without any action by either the Railway Protection Force (RPF) or the Government Railway Police (GRP) to save him, said an NHRC statement.

“It is a matter of concern that despite deployment of RPF to monitor security of the passengers in the moving trains and the GRP at every station, no security personnel noticed the plight of the victim between Jabalpur and Itarasi.

“Therefore, the contents of the news report, if true, are evident of insensitivity and careless attitude of the personnel of these forces and raise a serious issue of violation of human right to life and dignity of the youth,” observed the Commission while issuing the notices and calling for detailed reports in four weeks time.

According to the media reports, 25-year-old Sumit Kacchi, had boarded S-2 coach of Mumbai bound Pataliputra Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Superfast Express from Jabalpur at 11 pm on March 25.

Reportedly, he had an altercation over drinking water from the bottle of a fellow passenger. Thereafter, a group of them beat and hanged him upside down out of the window of the fast moving train for nearly 4 hours covering a distance of about 272 km from Jabalpur to Itarasi, the statement said.