ROURKELA: An employee of the South Eastern Railway (SER) was arrested on charges of raping a 20-year-old woman at Rourkela railway station after luring her with the promise of arranging a confirmed ticket on Thursday.
The accused, Kapileswar Singh (54), was engaged as a valve man under the office of the Inspector of Works in the Civil Engineering department of SER. Following his arrest, Singh was dismissed from service by the SER.
Rourkela GRP IIC Sasmita Sahu said the crime took place between 11.30 am and 12.30 pm. The survivor, a resident of Nuapada district, was waiting alone at platform 1 of the railway station to board a train to Bengaluru, while her brother had reportedly gone to make inquiries about their ticket reservation status as it was on the waiting list.
Sahu said the accused approached the woman and tricked her to accompany him on the pretext of meeting a senior railway officer to get her reservation confirmed. Singh allegedly took her to the operator room near the officers’ rest house on platform 1 and raped her. He also gave Rs 2,000 to the survivor and told her not to disclose the incident to anyone, the IIC said.
After coming out of the room, the woman contacted her brother and narrated her ordeal. Subsequently, she lodged a complaint with the GRP, leading to the arrest of the accused.
Senior divisional commercial manager of SER Aditya Chaudhury confirmed that the accused employee was dismissed from service. The SER will extend all assistance to police in investigation of the case, he added.
