25-yr-old girl, mother robbed, attacked on Howrah-Pune Azad Hind Express

Sinha has recently completed her course at city-based International Institute of Fashion Designing (INIFD) and was visiting Pune with her mother to complete the formalities and collect her completion certificates. Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from a private hospital in Daund, she said, “We were travelling in S5 coach of Azad Hind Express. We had boarded from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh for Pune and were occupying the lower berths. The window on my side remained open. Early morning, when the train had halted at an unscheduled stop, I woke up to find that someone was trying to pull by bag. During the struggle, my mother tried to help me pull the bag back but it tore and they managed to run away with it. Moments later, we realised that both my mother and I had knife cuts on our hands. We had deep cuts and were bleeding profusely. We were told to wait until Daund station to approach the police and get medical attention,” said Sinha, adding, she had to wait for half-an-hour to get medical attention. “Much later, a lady policeofficer reached the spot and helped and consoled us. She also hospitalised us,” she said.

Vishwa Pansare, Superintendent of Police, Pune Government Railway Police (GRP), said that he has launched an inquiry into the incident. “The route is guarded and there are GRP officer in each coach. We have deployed policemen at 27 vulnerable spots between Patas and Solapur. There’s also a guard at Daund outer signal,” said Pansare, while denying the claim made by Sinha that for about an hour, no police came to her help.