Kolkata, April 3 A 23-year-old youth has been arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district for leaving his motorcycle at a level crossing between the Sonarpur and Champahati stations, leading to a train smashing into the two-wheeler and stopping, causing a disruption in services, officials said.
The incident occurred on March 27.
"We are treating this matter very seriously. The act could have caused a derailment. There could also have been a fire as the motorcycle had petrol in its tank. In both cases, passengers may have suffered injuries. We have charged the man under several sections of The Railways Act, 1989,” a senior Eastern Railway (ER) official said.
The youth, identified as Sudipta Mistry, is a resident of Purba Mali Pukuria in Sonarpur. He evaded arrest for six days before being picked up on Wednesday evening. He has been charged with obstructing rail movement and endangering the lives of passengers and may end up spending two years in jail.
"We are trying to find out why he did it. Even if the motorcycle had stopped, he could have just pushed it away from the tracks. Maybe it was some kind of prank. In the past, there have been several incidents where people have placed various objects, including steel bars and gas cylinders, on the tracks to make reels and circulate them on social media. Some people have been arrested for those incidents. The Railway Board has now made it very clear that such acts shall not be tolerated," the official said.
The Canning Section, under the Sealdah Division of the ER, where the incident occurred, is a very busy one, handling a lot of suburban traffic. The ER has made efforts to close down as many level crossings as possible and replace them with Road Over Bridges (ROBs) or underpasses. However, this has not been possible in all places. At many locations, the volume of road traffic is not sufficient to justify the costs of construction of ROBs or underpasses. Elsewhere, land acquisition is a problem.
A section of railway officials, particularly those from the traffic department, have said that more stringent laws are required to curb such acts. The delay of one train has a cascading effect and the entire section gets affected. Ultimately, passengers suffer.
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