Two sisters, children holidaying in city harassed on local train, none arrested

Two sisters and their children were harassed by male co-passengers in Virarbound local train on Thursday evening. The sisters were travelling on the 8:41 pm slow train from Churchgate and were seated in the second-class coach located just behind the motorman.

They informed about the incident to a Free Press Journal reporter who promptly informed senior officials of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).

But the RPF officials failed to trace the harassers who alighted at Nalasopara.

“A group of male commuters, who were look like auto-rickshaw drivers, boarded the train at Grant Road or Mumbai Central and started misbehaving with us. They asked us to vacate the seat, saying they travel everyday in the same train and the seats we occupied were are reserved for them,” said the younger sister, who is a lawyer at the Patna High Court.

She further said other commuters did not come forward to help because the harassers were in a group. “We travelled till Virar under constant fear. They were passing lewd comments on us but none came forward to help us. I had not expected Mumbai to be like this,” she added.

The Senior Divisional Security Commissioner (DSC), RPF Western Railway Anoop Shukla said a special RPF staff detained a local train at Bhayandar station.

“A team of RPF and Government Railway Police (GRP) looked into the train at Bhayandar and Vasai. The ladies said they don’t want to lodge a complaint. If any of them has a complaint, tell her to lodge an FIR and we will assist,” Shukla told the Free Press Journal.

However, the sisters argued that no policemen came to their coach till Virar. “We don’t want to register any case as it was a harrowing incident and we don’t want to recall it now,” said the sisters, who vow not to travel by local trains again.

One of the harassed woman said other commuters did not come forward to help because the culprits were in a group