Rail Roko: Cops probe if ‘vandalism’ was pre-planned, damage pegged at Rs 2 crore

From 8 am to noon on Friday, 10 rakes were damaged and four police vehicles were destroyed by hundreds of people who gathered near the Diva railway station, following a broken pantograph leading to suspension of services.

What began as a rail roko agitation to protest the frequent problems on the Central Railway escalated into a full scale riot, and police, as well as CR officials, now suspect that the violence was incited by miscreants who took advantage of the large crowd to create trouble. As many as 134 services were suspended with the entire line limping to normalcy only by late afternoon.

“We have examined video footage shot by several sources, including television news channels and our personnel, and have seen people armed with iron rods boarding trains and damaging equipment. The motorman, who was driving the train that the CR Divisional Railway Manager was travelling in, which was also attacked, said people armed with iron chains and rods boarded the train and proceeded to damage it. We are definitely probing whether the violence was a conspiracy and are trying to identify the people responsible. It is highly unlikely for office-going commuters to take the law into their hands to this extent,” said Chief Public Relations Officer Narendra Patil of CR.

Patil added that the initial estimate of losses sustained by CR had been placed at Rs 2 crore, with the damaged ATVM machines alone costing Rs 20 lakh in all. “A total of 13 ATVM machines, each costing around Rs 1.7 lakh, were damaged along with other equipment. Rs 1.17 lakh was also looted from the ticket counters at the Diva railway station,” Patil said.

From 11:30 pm on Friday to 7:30 am on Saturday, a workforce of 300 CR employees was pressed into service to repair the 10 rakes damaged in the chaos, and all the 10 rakes were put back into service from Saturday morning. The damaged equipment included Man Machine Interfaces (MMIs), each of which costs several lakhs of rupees, as well as switch panels, speedometers and public address system displays, said officials.

Meanwhile, the Mumbra police, from Friday night till Saturday afternoon, have arrested 21 people in connection with the fracas.

“The arrested accused are all residents of Diva, and we are still probing how many of them were commuters and how many were miscreants. Their backgrounds are being checked. Our teams are still scanning video footage, and identifying and tracing more accused,” said Senior Police Inspector S M Mundhe, Mumbra police station.

The Thane police are also considering approaching the court seeking that the accused be made to pay the losses in the riot. “It is one of the possibilities that we are exploring. Bandobast has been deployed in Diva to prevent any untoward incident,” said Thane Police Commissioner Vijay Kamble.

Meanwhile, the Dombivali Railway Police have also arrested four accused in connection with the case and are on the lookout for more.

(with inputs by Rohit Alok)