Auto toots into Palghar station, driver held

MUMBAI: In the second such case in a month, an autorickshaw driver drove his three-wheeler onto the platform at Palghar railway station on Wednesday. The driver, Pintu Srivastava (34), who was arrested and released on bail on Thursday, said drove on to the platform to help a senior citizen who complained of uneasiness..
Last month, autorickshaw driver, Sagar Gawad (34), was arrested for driving his vehicle onto the platform at Virar to help a pregnant woman get to hospital.He, too, was arrested and released on bail.
On Wednesday afternoon, Srivastava, who was waiting outside the station, drove onto platform 1 after a vendor informed him about an 85-year-old man complaining of uneasiness on the platform. Srivastava drove onto the platform, picked up the senior citizen and drove him to a nearby hospital where he was admitted.
The elderly passenger, a resident of Mumbai, was returning home after visiting his ancestral home in Mastan for the Ganesh festival. As train services were hit due to heavy rains, the passenger who had been standing on the platform for a few hours began feeling unwell. His family members made him lie down on a bench. The vendor reached out to Srivastava and asked him to help the passenger. Srivastava, who was first in the queue waiting to ply passengers, drove straight onto the platform. Station superintendent, Milind Kirtikar, who learnt about the passenger, called a nurse from the Emergency Medical Room and the passenger was taken to the Palghar rural hospital in the auto.
While Palghar station does not have CCTV cameras, passengers took photographs of the auto on the platform. Based on the pictures, Palghar RPF registered a case under Section 154 of the Railway Act for endangering the safety of persons travelling by railway by rash or negligent act and under section 159 for disobedience of drivers or conductors to directions of a railway servant. He later got bail.
Driver Pintu Srivastava rushed to help an 85-year-old passenger who was unwell