Railway Staff beaten to death on Humsafar Express

Lucknow: A railway employee was beaten to death by a girl’s family members and other passengers aboard a train to New Delhi early on Thursday after he allegedly sexually assaulted the 11-year-old, police said.

According to officials, a family from Siwan had boarded the Humsafar Express from Bihar’s Barauni  to New Delhi on Wednesday and, around 11.30 pm, Group D railway employee Prashant Kumar made a 11-year-old girl from the family sit on his seat. When the girl’s mother went to the washroom later, Kumar allegedly molested the girl.

As soon as the woman came out of the washroom, the girl ran to her, hugged her and began crying. She took her mother to the washroom and told her what had happened. The mother then informed her husband, father-in-law and other passengers in the M1 (AC III tier economy) coach on the train. The train had reached the Aishbagh junction in Lucknow when the angry passengers and family members caught hold of Kumar, took him to the area near the doors of the coach and thrashed him till the train reached Kanpur Central, which is about an hour and a half away. When the train rolled into Kanpur Central at 4.35 am on Thursday, officials from the Government Railway Police (GRP) took Kumar to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead, officials said.

While the family of the girl filed a complaint of sexual assault, Kumar’s family has filed a complaint of murder.

Kumar’s uncle, Pawan, said the family, which lives in Samastpur village in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, found out that he had been beaten to death after an official from the local police station informed them. “Prashant was not that kind of man. It seems he was killed as part of a conspiracy. He was beaten for so long, were there no personnel from the Railway Police Force around,” he asked.

However, Superintendent of Police, GRP (Prayagraj), Abhishek Yadav said, “When the train crossed Aishbagh, the girl said she had been molested. Her family members and other passengers beat up the accused. At Kanpur Central, the accused was handed over to the GRP and a complaint was filed. When he was taken to the hospital, he was declared dead.”