A 40-year old woman along with her 15-year old daughter jumped off a running train, when a group of men tried raping the daughter, while they were on board a local Indian train, Howrah-Jodhpur Express, late Saturday night.
The mother and daughter were travelling from Kolkata to Delhi. Around 10pm, four to five men pounced on the girl when she was going towards the toilet. Hearing her yell, the mother ran towards the men and fought with them before finally jumping off the train with her daughter.
“In the struggle, my daughter’s clothes were torn. We had to jump off as we had no choice,” the mother said. This happened when the train was between Chandari and Kanpur railway stations. The two fell unconscious after jumping and remained in the same state for nearly two hours.
After regaining consciousness, the injured mother and daughter walked to the Chandari Railway Station where people called an ambulance and rushed them to a nearby hospital.
The incident came into the Government Railway Police (GRP) knowledge late on Sunday. “We are in the process of registering an FIR [first information report] on the complaint,” said Ram Mohan Rai, SHO, GRP Kanpur, according to Hindustan Times.
The woman reported to police about a group of nearly 10-15 men who behaved mischievously, harassed and mocked her daughter soon after the train began its journey.
She claimed to have complained about the harassment twice to the constables at different railway stations, but the men continued doing so after bribing the cops. “The men got aggressive and kept threatening me, they would drug my daughter and sell her,” she further added.
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The police said her husband has been informed of the incident and is on his way to Kanpur. The woman said they would submit a formal complaint only after his arrival.
Despite the woman’s accusations of that the RPF constables took bribes to let off the offenders, the North Central Railway which runs the Howrah-Jodhpur Express distanced itself from the incident.
“The incident took place near Howrah, which is not under our jurisdiction. When she reported the matter at Rasoolabad near Chandari station, the RPF constables provided her all the assistance and got them admitted to hospital,” said Gaurav Bansal, North Central Railway’s chief PRO.
