28-year-old narrates horror as Railway cop turns molester on Darjeeling Mail

KOLKATA: A 28-year-old homemaker, returning home from a family vacation at Darjeeling, was allegedly molested inside an air conditioned coach of Darjeeling Mail by a policeman in charge of guarding the train on Wednesday night.
According to the complaint lodged before the Sealdah Government Railway Police (GRP), the woman — a resident of Baranagar in North Kolkata — says her torment began on Wednesday night moments after the train had chugged out of Kishangunj station, the first halt for the train after it leaves the New Jalpaiguri station at 8pm.

The complainant says, she was on board an AC 3-tier coach. She had gone to the toilet around 9.30pm and while returning back to her berth, a middle-aged uniformed policeman allegedly touched her intentionally. She, however, did not raise an alarm at that point but ran to her berth and told the matter to her husband, sister and parents with whom she was travelling.
But since the man was in uniform, the family initially decided to not to start a hue and cry over the issue and kept mum. But soon after the incident, the same cop, allegedly came near their berth and was allegedly started checking out the woman.
The trouble, however, reached its peak after dinner when most passengers were asleep. The cop allegedly came back and tried to touch the woman while she was sleeping. “The woman’s husband was still awake and raised an alarm. The man started shouting and the accused person allegedly left the coach,” said an official of Sealdah GRP.
When the family went up to the ticket examiner and reported the matter. He took them to the officer-in-charge of the police escorts. Listening to their complaint, he called all the cops on board. When the woman identified one of them as her tormentor, he allegedly pleaded apology before them.
Fearing they would miss the train, the family lodged a complaint after the train reached Sealdah on Thursday.
The Sealdah GRP took the complaint, turned it into a zero FIR and transferred the case to Siliguri GRP.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
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