53-year-old GRP cop snatch-saves two lives

ROURKELA: Displaying exemplary courage and lightning quick reaction, a 53-year-old assistant sub-inspector of Government Railway Police (GRP) saved two youngsters from the jaws of death at Rourkela railway station on Monday. The ASI Niren Pani rescued a youth and a girl who slipped while trying to board the running South-Bihar Express and were about to go under the wheels of the train.

The youth, in his early twenties, and two other girls of a Chhattisgarh-based family were travelling in South-Bihar Express. When the train halted at Rourkela, the three alighted. At around 12 pm, when the train started its departure, one of the girls managed to get on board while the youth held the compartment’s handle with his right hand. Hanging precariously, he tried to hold on to the other girl with his left hand. 

As the train picked up pace, the youth firmly seized the girl’s hand and started dragging her even as her sandals and mobile phone dropped on the tracks. “I started running after them and saw the youth hanging and losing his grip. As the girl was about to slip through the gap between the platform and the moving train, I caught hold of her,” the ASI recounted. Relieved of the girl’s weight, the youth escaped from falling and went inside the compartment. 

Other GRP personnel and Railway Protection Force personnel swung into action and the train was stopped immediately. The girl’s mobile phone and sandal were returned and the family left for Chhattisgarh, the ASI said.  The CCTV footage showed that the girl lost balance in her first attempt to board the moving train. Though GRP and RPF personnel prevented her, she made another risky attempt oblivious of the possible consequence. 

Lauding Pani’s action, GRP IIC Ranjan Patnaik said delay of fraction of a second would have cost the two young lives as the girl was slipping and would have certainly pulled the hanging youth to the tracks. He advised passengers against taking such risks.