Molesting, harassment, and violent incidents against female passengers in local trains continue to plague the city even after multiple efforts made by the Railway Police. The most recent incident is of a 24-year-old woman who was targeted by a man on-board the same local train as it ran between Grant Road stations on the Western Railway on Friday.
This incident occurred on Friday night when the woman took a train from Charni Road station and as the local train reached Grant Road, the young man started making lewd gestures, vulgar language, and snarky comments. The victim was in great distress as she could not understand what to do. Feeling harassed and embarrassed, the 24-year-old felt unsafe and returned home.
According to the complaint of the victim, the GRP official confirmed that the case has been registered under the relevant sections of IPC as further investigations go on.
The man then proceeded to escape by jumping off the slow-moving train and due to the overwhelming stress of what had just happened to her, the victim could not file a complaint on the same day and hence decided to go home.
She filed a complaint on Wednesday with Mumbai Central Railway Police, and stressed upon how some serious and urgent measures must be applied to ensure the safety of female commuters and passengers. The police have confirmed that they will be finding the accused and arresting him soon.
Earlier on June 14th 2024 a 20-year-old woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 40-year-old male in the ladies’ compartment of the train. The accused was a daily waged labourer who entered the empty compartment in the morning and then ran away when the woman raised alarm. Though he was caught 8 hours later, the incident is proof of the lack of safety of women.
A similar incident occurred on June 9th 2024 where the man, identified as Pappu Gupta, entered the women’s coach when it was empty except for a 20-year-old victim, a college student. After crossing Churni Road station, the man got up and allegedly pulled the victim by her hair, bit her lips and snatched her bag and mobile phone.
After the victim shouted for help, he jumped off the slowing train, and upon hearing the student’s scream the commuters and police personnel chased him and caught hold of him.
There are multiple cases of such violent acts against women throughout the month and even after they worked on increasing the number of female seats and coaches in the local train in the past year, men have gone forward and entered the ladies’ coaches. While some may consider empty coaches a threat, overcrowded ones also act as a medium for crimes, robbery and molestation.
Many female commuters have asked the police department of the railways to have stricter and safer rules, as public transport is essential for all commuters who are students or working. There are cases of thefts and crime that have not ceased in the local trains.
