Kidnapping at Jalandhar rly station exposes security lapses
Platform number 2, from where the 6dayold infant was kidnapped, does not have any CCTV camera; Jalandhar is on list of stations selected for integrated security system
THE COUPLE HAD LEFT THEIR SON WITH HIS TWO BROTHERS, WHO WERE SLEEPING AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT; THE INFANT WAS KIDNAPPED FROM PLATFORM NUMBER 2
Following an acquaintance’s advice, Kishan Chand, 36, who worked as a hawker in Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh), decided to try his luck and start a new life in Jalandhar city. Chand along with his family boarded a train from Lucknow to Jalandhar city on September 2. But little did he know that his quest for a better life for his family would turn out to be a nightmare.
Chand was accompanied by his with wife, two sons aged 7, 5 and a 6-day-old infant, who was kidnapped from the railway station, when the couple had gone to washroom.
The couple had left their son with his two brothers who were sleeping at the time of the incident. The infant was kidnapped from platform number 2 at around 5 am on Monday.
The infant has not been even named yet.
Later that day, Poonam was admitted to the civil hospital as her condition was not good, claimed the GRP police. The couple left the hospital without being released by the doctors.
Sitting at the government railway police (GRP) station on Tuesday along his wife Poonam, 26, still in pain after recently delivering a child, a desolate Kumar says that he has lost hope of getting his son back.
“Though we have lost hope, we will stay in the city for another couple of days as my wife is not ready to leave without the child,” said Chand.
“I had come to Jalandhar following a friend’s advice who works at Sabzi Mandi but I am unable to find him now,” he said. As the family has no place to stay in the city, they will spend the next days on the platform of city railway station.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) is clueless about the kidnapping.
The infant’s kidnapping has exposed some serious security lapses on the part of the police. Platform number-2, where the incident took place does not have a single CCTV camera.Also the cameras installed at around 13 points of the platform number 1 have not been operated yet.
“Though the CCTV cameras have been put at multiple points, they are yet to be operational as we don’t have a monitoring room that was to be provided by the railways,” said a GRP official requesting anonymity.
It is to be mentioned that Jalandhar city railway station is among the stations recently selected by the railway ministry for putting up an integrated security system (ISS). The railways ministry has selected 13 railway stations under Ferozepur railway division, including four from Punjab circle for the integrated security system.
“We are investigating into the matter,”said station house officer (SHO) GRP Jalandhar Baldev Singh Randhawa.