Illegal entry points aid attacks on rly commuters

Daksha Ghugale,the 30-year-old who died last month after falling off a moving train,would have been alive had the Central Railway main line between Kurla-Sion been access controlled as it is supposed to be. Ghugale was critically injured after someone threw a stick at her as she was speaking on her cellphone near the footboard of a moving train on January 23.

In fact,this stretch alone has at least 10 illegal access points,most of them gaps in the wall,created by miscreants and slumdwellers. The tracks parallel to the LBS Marg alone have five illegal entry points,Railway officials said similar incidents have been reported along the same stretch earlier too. The modus operandi of miscreants is usually the same — throw an object at commuters speaking on cellphones and make away with phones and other valuables that fall off their hands. But often this has disastrous consequences like in the case of Ghugale.

In March 2010,the Kurla police had arrested three persons for attacking commuters. But others use the illegal access points to make a quick getaway.

“The miscreants who attacked Ghugale might have also fled through one of these entry points. We have told the railways to construct RCC walls that are more difficult to damage,” said Senior Police Inspector D R Gore of Kurla Railway Police.

Interestingly,the new fencing walls being constructed by the Central Railway have also been damaged at many spots. The situation is worse beyond Thane.

“We have been constructing walls,but miscreants damage them as soon as they are built. We would soon be repairing the damaged spots in the Kurla-Sion patch,” said CR chief spokesperson Vidyadhar Malegaonkar.