Times of India
MUMBAI, Sep 10: In a shocking incident that points to the abysmal level of policing in Mumbai, a woman in her mid-30s was found naked and unconscious on a CST-Titwala train's first class ladies compartment on Saturday night.
The unidentified woman travelled the entire 65-km distance between the two stations in that condition with no help forthcoming from a single commuter. In a display of utter apathy which puts the city to shame, both policemen and commuters chose to steer clear of the ladies compartment fearing they would get entangled in legal hassles.
The woman, travelling in the ladies first class compartment of the 9.27 pm in the CST-Titwala local on Saturday, was lying naked with her clothes strewn all around her. She was spotted by commuters immediately after boarding the train at CST but nobody alerted the railway authorities or police. In fact, no one even came forward to cover the woman.
Despite tall claims of posting armed woman commandos in the ladies section, there was no police personnel when the train left CST. Eventually, even after a senior government railway police official was informed, he chose to pass on the information to subordinates in Kalyan and then failed to track the situation.
Krishnakant Mishra, an eyewitness who boarded the same train in an adjoining gents first class compartment, told TOI that he noticed the woman lying on the floor when the train had reached the Sion station. 'I immediately inform-ed a police constable. However, the constable vanished from there soon after hearing the complaint," said Mishra.
He said scores of commuters boarded the compartment subsequently, only to hurriedly get off it as soon as they spotted the unconscious wom-an. "The woman was bleeding. She was lying between two rows of seats and her clothes were lying near her legs," he said. When asked why he didn't pull the chain, Mishra said, "Initially I thought she was a mentally disturbed woman, so I thought of informing the police. But since the constable just vanished to save their skin, I decided to inform some top brass official about the mysterious incident," said Mishra.
Mishra said he called up A K Sharma, inspector-general of police (railways) and narrated the incident before getting down at Kanjurmarg station. Sharma, when contacted, confirmed he had received a call from a passenger providing details of such an incident. "I instructed officers at Kalyan railway station to check the compartment. But by then the train had already left for Titwala," he said.
Sharma said, "She may have delivered a baby since she was reported to be pregnant."