70 suspects rounded up in Jaybala case

MUMBAI, November 1: The Government Railway Police GRP and the Railway Protection Force RPF personnel have arrested 172 unauthorised pers...

MUMBAI, November 1: The Government Railway Police GRP and the Railway Protection Force RPF personnel have arrested 172 unauthorised persons on Mumbai8217;s suburban railways in the wake of last week8217;s Jaybala Ashar episode.Among other offenders seized during the 15-day-long drive which began on Saturday, GRP and RPF personnel rounded up 36 eunuchs, 55 eve-teasers, two drug addicts and 41 men for travelling in ladies compartments.

Meanwhile, the GRP is still hunting for the bag snatching suspect who pushed TYBCom student Jaybala off a moving train in Charni Road last Monday. However, tracking down this public enemy number one of local train commuters isn8217;t proving to be easy. 8220;It8217;s like looking for a needle in a haystack,8221; Superintendent of Police GRP K Ramachandran said.

Calls from the public had been pouring into the GRP control rooms and police stations soon after sketches of the suspect had been circulated, but all of them proved to be false alarms, he said. Teams of two and three policemen werebeing rushed to railway stations to follow up every anonymous call. GRP officials investigating the case told Express Newsline that so far over 70 suspects had been rounded up and paraded before Jaybala who is bedridden at the Nair hospital, but so far without success. 8220;Our efforts will continue till she identifies one of them,8221; said a GRP official.

The railways have also woken up to the severe shortage of women security personnel. The Western and Central Railways currently require 750 women personnel for guard duties aboard suburban trains to ensure at least minimum security round the clock for lady commuters, rail officials said. However, the GRP and the RPF have just 170 women personnel.

The GRP is also continuing with occasional video shooting of hutments along railway tracks to discourage incidents of stone throwing on commuters. In the video shoot which is done on various sections once in a fortnight has a hired videographer escorted by GRP constables, filming sections of the track from a runningtrain.