BENGALURU: A knife-wielding youth repeatedly stabbed a woman passenger inside the Dadar-Puducherry Express when it stopped at Yesvantpur railway station for refusing to part with her chain.
The irony was that the 25-year-old passenger was only wearing an imitation chain.
This horrific attack took place on Tuesday (May 30) a little after 11 pm inside a sleeper compartment of the train heading from Mumbai to Puducherry. The train had stopped for a couple of minutes at the station when Rajeshwari was attacked inside the S4 coach. The victim is a fishmonger at Mulund in Mumbai.
Elaborating on the incident, Superintendent of Government Railway Police (GRP), Karnataka, N Chaitra told Express, “The woman was travelling with her relatives to attend a wedding of one of her husband’s kin at Puducherry. All of them were with her in S4 compartment but left for the S9 compartment at 11 pm to rest for the night as they got their reserved berths only in that coach.”
Some time later, the train stopped at Yesvantpur when the assailant ordered her to hand over her chain in a threatening voice, the SP said recounting Rajeshwari’s version. “The woman was so shocked on seeing the knife that she could not react. The miscreant took it to mean a refusal on her part and stabbed her with a knife on her head, neck and shoulder before alighting from the train and escaping,” Chaitra said.
Ss the train was about to move, passengers started entering the coach and seeing her condition tried to help her. Rajeshwari also called up one of her relatives in S9 coach and the group rushed to assist her, the officer added.
The family immediately alighted at the Yesvantpur station and went to a local hospital to avail treatment for the victim. They returned to the station the next day morning (Wednesday) along with Rajeshwari and filed a case at the GRP station here. “We have booked a case against the unknown assailant under Section 393 IPC for Attempt to Commit Robbery,” Chaitra said.
Rajeshwari also told police that she was not attempting to cling on to her chain as it was “just imitation jewellery.”
Meanwhile, police are exploring all angles. “Since the woman was a Tamilian and the assailant also demanded her to part with her chain in Tamil, we suspect he may have been closely watching her and perhaps tailing her from Mumbai. He may have chosen the opportune moment to commit the robbery,” the SP said, adding, “This is a very rare case.
Nothing like this has happened openly inside a train in the last 15 years. Someone being stabbed for not giving up a chain sounds very suspicious.”
The possible involvement of any of the relatives was also being probed since the attack seems to have occurred when all of them left and she was left alone in the compartment.
Though important points at the Yesvantpur railway station are equipped with CCTVs, the platforms are not covered by them. The woman and her family left for Puducherry later on Wednesday.