MUMBAI, November 23: A stopover at Delhi during a short business trip took 36-year-old Nirmal Jain to Destination Disaster when he found himself ensnared in a racket involving junior-level staff of the Northern Railway who stole his luggage from the lockers at the station for a measly Rs 25,000.Jain's never-ending journey, during which he also lost vital business documents that has cost him Rs 2 lakh, finally took him to the Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI) in Mumbai, Union Minister of State for Railways Ram Naik and the Thane district Consumer Court.A cloth merchant and a resident of Kalbadevi in Mumbai, Jain stopped over at New Delhi on August 31, en route from Nepal. After arriving at the New Delhi railway station at around 5 pm, he deposited his luggage at the station's lockers and was given a receipt (no 141900) by the counter clerk, Mohanty Das. He told the clerk he would pick up his bags in a few hours, as his train to Kanpur was scheduled to leave the same night. When he returned, Jainfound his luggage had vanished. Das, who appeared surprised as well, rummaged around till around 10 pm, before giving up the search.Helpless, Jain approached Government Railway Potection Force personnel stationed on platform 1. However, instead of lodging a complaint, Jain says they shooed him away.The businessman spent the night on the grubby platform and approached Das the next morning. He was told to return at 1 pm. When he did, Das introduced him to Sanjay Kumar, who claimed to be a railway vigilance officer from Baroda. Jain, however, refused to answer Kumar's queries pertaining to his luggage and itinerary since the latter did not possess an identity card.After advising him not to lodge a complaint with the police, Kumar promised to locate his luggage within three days. He also introduced Jain to Anand Prakash, who was in charge of the lockers at New Delhi railway station.On September 5, Jain received a telephone call from Kumar, who claimed that his luggage had been located at Nizammudinrailway station in Old Delhi. Jain sent his secretary to meet Kumar in New Delhi but to no avail. Another emmissary, a Western Railway junior officer who is a friend of Jain, met with no success either.Jain, who is desperate to recover his documents, approached the CGSI on November 21 and also filed a petition with the consumer court on November 23.Gresh Wadhwani, of the CGSI's Complaints Cell, told Express Newsline that the CGSI had received two similar complaints, where luggage was stolen allegedly in connivance with the railway staff at Delhi and Bhopal this year.The CGSI's preliminary inquiries reveal that prima facie, Sanjay Kumar, Mohanty Das and Anand Prakash appear to be hand-in-glove with other railway officials in the racket, he said, adding that the organisation would continue its investigation.Wadhwani, who is also an executive member of the Passenger and Traffic Relief Association and the Divisional Railway Users' Committee, says these organisations would together lodge acomplaint with the Vigilance Department of the Central Railway, Mumbai.
