Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
Giving a significant boost to railway passenger safety and speeding up investigations, the Director General of Police (Railways), Prashant Burde, has initiated smart usage of social media. To ensure that crimes occurring during railway travel are reported immediately and investigated quickly, WhatsApp groups have now been created for government railway police (GRP) and railway protection force (RPF) across key states in the country. Email systems have also been integrated to improve communication. Burde has issued instructions to quickly investigate crimes occurring on trains and at stations using this system.
After assuming the post of DGP (Railways), Burde held his first crime review meeting in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The meeting was attended by superintendent of police (SP) Swati Bhor and deputy SPs Sanjay Lohakare and Vasant Bhole. Over a four-hour session, they reviewed crimes along highway jurisdictions, ongoing investigations, and pending cases. Burde emphasized the importance of passenger safety. Since complaints are often delayed due to passengers being in transit, he instructed that Zero FIR procedures be used so that a crime can be registered immediately, regardless of the location of the incident.
Incidents from key states will be reported immediately
Typically, passengers report thefts and loot only after reaching another state, leading to long delays in case registration and affecting investigations. To address this, Burde created WhatsApp groups of all key railway police officers in major states. By integrating emails, information about crimes reported by passengers in Maharashtra will now be communicated immediately. Officers have been instructed to prioritise investigations of these crimes and to maintain records of offenders from other states.
Use of technology for missing persons investigations
A majority of railway police cases involve missing persons or unidentified dead bodies, many of which remain pending for years. In such cases, technical investigations are to be emphasized. Instructions were also given to increase night patrolling to curb robberies, loot, and thefts on railways. The meeting included a review of the construction progress at the Sharanapur headquarters of the railway police.