Probe ordered after IPS146;s wife says DIG molested her

A DIG rank officer of the Railway Protection Force RPF has been accused of molesting the wife of an IPS officer and sister of a Bihar cadre woman IAS officer on the New Delhi-Patna Sampoorna Kranti Express on Sunday night.

A DIG rank officer of the Railway Protection Force RPF has been accused of molesting the wife of an IPS officer and sister of a Bihar cadre woman IAS officer on the New Delhi-Patna Sampoorna Kranti Express on Sunday night.

Sujata Preyasi was travelling in an AC First Class compartment with her sister Vandana, who is a Joint Secretary in the state Home Department, when P J Rawal, allegedly in an inebriated condition, tried to molest her. Sujata is reportedly married to a Punjab cadre IPS officer.

After hectic discussions in bureaucratic and IPS circles a complaint in this regard was lodged with the Government Railway Police GRP station at Patna. 8220;A zero FIR has been lodged by Sujata Preyasi who described the incident which took place on Sunday night between Kanpur and Allahabad. The case will now be transferred to the concerned GRP station,8221; said Alok Kumar, officer-in-charge of GRP, Patna.

However, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav who was here with Presidential candidate Pratibha Patil, gave a clean chit to Rawal and said that nothing serious had happened.

8220;The DG, RPF has probed the matter. There is nothing in it,8221; he reacted. But when pointed out that a case has been lodged Lalu said: 8220;Let there be a probe8221;. Home Commissioner Afzal Amanullah too said the matter would be probed by the Railways.

Meanwhile, despite repeated attempts, neither the complainant nor the DIG were available for comment.

According to sources, the two women and Rawal were travelling in the same coupe of the AC First Class compartment. At around midnight, Rawal tried to molest Sujata who was sleeping on the lower berth. Following the incident, the two sisters raised an alarm and reportedly roughed up the drunken DIG. They snatched away his mobile phone and identity card and lodged a complaint with TTE Bhagwan Das. Das also confirmed the complaint.

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Vandana reportedly contacted senior bureaucrats of Bihar and apprised them about the incident. Sources said initially there was an attempt to hush up the matter, but finally a complaint was lodged.

Late in the evening, following directions from the Railway Minister, a two-member inquiry team was set up to investigate the incident. Headed by Inspector General RPF Gopal Gupta, the team includes Chief Security Commissioner Northeastern Railways Jaya Chauhan. No deadline has been set for the submission of their report.

With inputs from Raghvendra Rao