Outrage after passenger records footage of a railway police constable groping a woman at a train station
A sickening video has surfaced of a police constable groping an unsuspecting young woman at a train station in India. The officer, identified as Rajesh Jahangir, was pretending to be asleep at the time of the incident. Other passengers managed to catch the Railway Protection Force (RPF) officer allegedly trying to touch the woman inappropriately while she was sitting next to him and looking after a small child. The woman had her back turned to the officer at the time, the Times of India reported.
The person who managed to spot the policeman up to his dirty tricks was able to sound the alarm to the other commuters at the scene as well as he was filming the incident on his cell phone. Trying to pretend that what he was doing was accidental, he pretended to be asleep, while he kept touching the woman's back.
In the video, the officer looks like he is sleeping by resting his head on his right hand while his left hand slowly moves up and down the woman's back. He then looks up for a couple of seconds before he continues to rest his head back on his right hand and then touch the woman inappropriately with his left.
Then, his fingers start drifting towards the woman's arm. She did not notice because she was tending to a young child who was sitting on the other side. The bystander who was taking the video sounded the alarm and that's when the policeman was caught.
The man sitting right next to the policeman jumped up from his seat and slapped the lewd officer across the face. A woman, also sitting nearby, pushed the officer away from the platform where the victim was sitting while the policeman tried to escape the wrath of the incensed crowd on the station.
The disgraced officer tried to cover his face to shield himself from the beatings but they do not let up. He immediately picks up his belongings and tried to calm the growing crowd by holding up his hands in a sign of apology. The furious people there, however, were having none of it and they kept verbally abusing him. One of the women from the crowd even started pushing the officer towards the train tracks.
For long he repeatedly asked the man to stop videotaping him and edged away from the crowd who kept abusing him and talked of giving him over to the station officials to be dealt with. He then moved away further to another spot on the same platform while the passenger with the camera phone kept recording his movements and his defiance.
According to the Times of India, the RPF have said that they immediately suspended the officer. They have requested for an internal inquiry after the incident took place at the Kalyan railway station close to the city of Mumbai on June 18 evening. Since no formal complaint has been lodged, a case is doubtful but the police have promised to take stern action based on the footage.
The footage that was uploaded on social media has received tens of thousands of views so far.
The Hindu reported that the senior RPF officials have informed the public that the officer in question had been with the force for 11 years. They also said that it was unlikely he would be terminated from service based on the video but he has been suspended for the time being.
Senior divisional security commissioner of Central Railway, Sachin Bhalode, told the publication: "We became aware of the incident on Wednesday morning. The constable was questioned by his seniors and suspended." He also said that the woman who was a victim and the witnesses who came to her rescue have not filed any complaints against the officer. Bhalode said that the officer had been off duty the day the incident occurred at the railway station. He was allegedly given a minor penalty because he had overshot his vacation days. It has been reported that the victim was probably waiting on the platform with the young child to catch an outstation train. Due to the humidity and crowded platform conditions, she had not been able to realize what was happening behind her back.
In another incident that took place on February 22 this year in Mumbai, a 43-year-old man was arrested after he was caught on CCTV camera forcibly trying to kiss a woman on a platform at the Turbhe railway station. The incident took place at around 11:25 a.m. when the 23-year-old woman was waiting on the platform to board a train that was heading towards Thane.
The 43-year-old man who was accused, Naresh Joshi, approached her and then allegedly groped her before he tried to kiss her forcibly. News agency, ANI, released the CCTV footage of the man running after the woman before grabbing her and then trying to kiss her. After she successfully managed to push him away, Joshi was caught on camera casually walking away like nothing ever happened. The woman filed a complaint against him and the RPF subsequently traced and found him. The complaint was filed under section 354 (A) of the Indian Penal Code. The authorities are now looking into the case to see if the suspect has a criminal record prior to the railway station incident.