On November 21,railway trackman Kharpatoo,posted with North Central Railway,received the railways national award for outstanding services. The award,which includes a cash prize of Rs 7,000,was given by Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi at a function in Delhi. Kharpatoo was honoured for averting a mishap by detecting tampering of the railway track in Sonbhadra district. But the police has a different story. It says that Kharpatoo had sheltered the men who tampered with the track on October 6,2010. The police said they had arrested seven men for removing Pandrol clips and fish plates of the rails and they named Kharpatoo for sheltering them. On June 14,this year,the police arrested Kharpatoo and a chargesheet was filed against him on the charge of harbouring offenders. Yet,the railways honoured him more than three months later. Chief Public Relation Officer of North Central Railway Sandeep Mathur did not comment on the police case,but said Kharpatoo was awarded for his outstanding work. Circle Officer Shamsher Singh,who supervised the police investigation,however, said Kharpatoo was arrested on the basis of the disclosure made by the accused. Some other men named by them are still missing,he said. Kharpatoo alleged the police had falsely implicated him. When the incident took place,it was said Naxalites were involved. Later,they claimed they had solved the case and arrested local thieves. This was done to show there was no Naxal activity in the area, he said. Jagdish Singh,senior section engineer at Churk,said,The breach was on the track located between two hills and there was a fear of Naxal attack from the top,so police waited till morning to visit the spot. The pendrol clips were removed at a spot about 3 km from Churk Railway Station in Sonbhadra. Kharpatoo then worked three as a keyman,supervising 7 km of the track. Kharpatoo said on October 6,2010,around 1 pm,he was returning to Churk Railway Station after completing work on the railway track when he spotted some persons sitting on a culvert. They snatched his tool bag and forcibly took him to a secluded place in the thickets. Around 8 in the night,they brought him to the track and asked him to open the penderol clip. I told them it is impossible for me to work in the dark. So,they opened the nuts and blots of the fishplates with my tools. A few minutes later,they released me with a warning not to tell anyone, he said. However,according to Kharpatoo,he went straight to the railway cabin in Churk area and informed the staff about the tampering between Churk and Agori railway stations. The movement of trains on that section was stopped,and next morning the track was repaired.
