Mumbai woman flashed in train: Chargesheet filed against RPF constable for dereliction of duty

Mumbai railway authorities on Sunday filed a chargesheet against a head constable of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for “not getting the train attended in time and not informing the inspector concerned” about a man exposing himself to a woman on a Churchgate-bound local train. [caption id=“attachment_3799423” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The incident took place on 15 June when the woman was travelling home after meeting her friends in Borivali. Boarding a Dadar-bound local, she sat in ladies’ compartment which was separated from the handicapped compartment by just a railing, according to a PTI report. The woman later described the incident in a Facebook post, which eventually went viral. “I’m looking at my phone and I see him waving at the girl through the railing. He’s put his hands through and has reached half the distance to the girl’s face. I cannot hear him, I’m wearing headphones. I reduce the music, out of curiosity and also to see whether she needs help, I do not turn. Looking down at my phone, I hear him calling her m******d. I heard it at least six times in the 30 seconds I listened. I looked at him, our eyes met and I looked down again (sic),” she said in her post. The woman added in the post that they initially ignored the man, perhaps thinking he was mentally challenged. However, he turned to face me and repeated the action, she wrote. The 22-year-old woman had said she had dialled the railway helpline number ‘182’ when the flasher exposed himself between Borivali and Kandivali stations and threatened to rape her, but the operator heard her out, “laughed off the matter” and hung up, according to a report by The Times of India. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu intervened after the post went viral and ordered a detailed inquiry into the incident.

Have ordered enquiry in the matter.Strict action will be taken against the guilty https://t.co/8bYODQY0OK

— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) July 9, 2017

After this, deputy commissioner of police (WR) Purushottam Karad on Thursday said they are verifying the matter and are going through the complainant’s call records to identify what exactly was done when the call came, according to this report in The Times of India. During its probe, railway officials heard the recording of all calls made on that day, and established that “no RPF staffer laughed at the complainant. " “We have registered a case against an unidentified person. A probe is on to identify the accused, we will scrutinise CCTV footage,” DNA quoted Purushottam Karad, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Western Railway, as saying.