New Delhi: The Bihar Police Friday suspended two Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel and set up a team to probe the sequence of events leading to assault by the officers on a 24-year-old man at Janakpur Road railway station on 25 July.
In his police complaint, Mohammed Furqan, who is admitted at Shree Krishna Medical College and Hospital, has alleged that he was assaulted by the two officers and that the assault resulted in the opening of stitches of a four-year-old surgery and his intestines bulging out.
ThePrint has seen a copy of the complaint.
In purported videos of the assault that have since surfaced on social media, Furqan is seen being assaulted by the now-suspended GRP personnel. His injury, too, is clearly visible.
Mohammed Nasir, a distant relative of Furqan who was present at the spot, claimed that he and Furqan had entered the compartment of the Karmabhoomi Express to assess the situation as his relative in the bogey had a heated argument with another group over seats.
“We entered the compartment to find out what happened and it led to heated arguments but no physical assault. Furqan also entered the compartment and around the same time, GRP personnel entered the bogey and grabbed him by the collar,” Nasir told ThePrint.
He added that he tried to assuage the situation.
“However, as I came out of the train, I saw Furqan being dragged by his hair on the platform by the police and they were beating him mercilessly. By the time I could assess the extent of the assault, he was taken away. This led to chaos and protest by locals who said Furqan was beaten so badly that his intestines bulged out of his stomach,” Nasir said.
Muzaffarpur Rail SP Gaurav Mangla confirmed to ThePrint that based on Furqan’s complaint, a case under Sections 109 (attempt to murder), 191(2) (rioting), 190 (joint liability to members of an unlawful assembly),126(2) (wrongful restraint), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 324(4) and (5) that deals with acts of mischief, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, has been registered at the Sitamarhi GRP police station.
Confirming the injury suffered by Furqan, Mangla said that two other GRP personnel had also been injured in the violent clash inside the train. He dismissed the allegation that GRP personnel seeking bribes led to the violence.
“Furqan has given a statement that the violence began after clashes between groups. There are allegations over social media that the violence began after GRP personnel sought money, which prima facie does not appear to be true,” he said in a video statement.
“Two police personnel, Dayanand Paswan and Gorelal Choudhary, who have been seen carrying out the assault, have been suspended with immediate effect and Samastipur GRP DSP has been assigned the duty of further probe,” he added.
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Furqan’s complaint
According to Furqan’s complaint, two groups unknown to him were fighting over seats on the train.
The complaint goes further to add that Furqan was seeing off his aunt, when the GRP personnel used force to quell the violent clashes between the groups inside the train.
Furqan claims that the use of force by GRP personnel led to commotion at the platform, including outside the station master’s cabin, and was followed by more use of force.
“I also got hit as the GRP lathicharged me, in which stitches of a four-year-old operation re-opened leading to my intestines bulging out,” he told the police.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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Bihar is a cesspool. As soon as the train enters Bihar, the TTE and the GRP are nowhere to be seen. Criminal elements board the train at every station and coerce bonafide passengers to “share” their seats. This happens even in 3AC and 2AC coaches. The intimidated passengers have no choice but to accept the demands made by these criminal elements.
Once the train exits Bihar, the TTE and GRP re-appear and everything is back to normal.