Mumbai: In yet another incident of violence against railway staff, a ticket inspector was allegedly assaulted by a passenger during a dispute over a valid ticket on Thursday. Vijay Kumar Pandit, 29, a ticket-checking employee, was reportedly attacked with a hockey stick at Nalasopara station.
Railway unions report that the incident occurred after the alleged assailant was found travelling in a first-class compartment with a second-class ticket. A First Information Report (FIR) was subsequently lodged with the Vasai Government Railway Police (GRP).
A leader from the Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh stated, “We were informed that the passenger who assaulted ran away from the spot after the incident. This is a very serious issue and the second such incident in the past few weeks.”
Pandit, who has been working as a ticket inspector at Nalasopara railway station for the past 10 months, recounted the events in his statement to the GRP. On 19 September, at approximately 7:13 am, he was checking tickets of passengers disembarking from the local first-class coach near the station master’s office on platform 1.
“A passenger got off from the first-class coach, and when I requested him to show his train ticket, he presented a second-class ticket from Goregaon to Nalasopara. I informed him that since he had alighted from the first-class coach, his ticket was invalid. Therefore, he would need to pay a fine of ₹345 for wrongful commute in first class without a valid ticket,” Pandit told the railway police.
The passenger allegedly claimed he only had ₹210 and asked for a reduced fine. Taking a sympathetic view, Pandit decided to charge him ₹150. After this interaction, the passenger left, and Pandit resumed checking tickets of other first-class passengers arriving on another train.
As Pandit was heading to the ticket inspector’s office, the same passenger allegedly approached him from behind and began attacking him with a hockey stick. Pandit reported that he started bleeding from behind his ear, and the assailant fled the scene. His colleagues later took him to Riddhi Vinayak Hospital in Nalasopara (West) for treatment, after which he was referred to Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Mumbai Central.
Based on Pandit’s statement, the Vasai GRP have filed a case against an unidentified passenger under sections 121(2) and 132 of the Indian Penal Code, and a search for the assailant has begun.
This incident follows a similar assault in early August when another ticket inspector, Jasbir Singh, was attacked inside a Churchgate-Virar air-conditioned local train. Singh suffered minor injuries during an altercation that began when he requested passengers to present their tickets for inspection. Upon finding invalid tickets, Singh informed the passengers they would need to pay a fine in accordance with railway regulations, leading to an argument.