Loco pilot hurt after man hurls stone at moving train in Ludhiana

A senior assistant loco pilot suffered a severe injury on his face after a miscreant pelted a stone at a running train near the Sidhwan Bridge on the Dhuri railway line here on Sunday evening. 

The Railway Protection Force (RPF), Ambala division, has registered a case under Section 153 (endangering safety of persons travelling by railway by wilful act or omission) of the Railway Act against an unidentified person. 

The victim was identified as Ravi Shankar, 29, hailing
from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

He has been serving at the city railway station as senior assistant loco pilot for the past three years.

Shankar suffered an injury on his chin and was not in a condition to speak.

He has been residing alone in a railway quarter here. 

The incident occurred after 54606 Ludhiana-Hisar passenger train departed from the city railway station at 5.20pm and before reaching Gill railway station at 5.40pm, an unidentified person threw a stone at the running train near the Sidhwan Bridge. 

The stone hit the victim after breaking the window of the power cabin. 

“We received an alert around 5.30pm and later, I along with Subash Yadav and other members of the Northern Railway Men’s Union (NRMU) rushed to the spot and brought the victim to the railway hospital,” said Ashok Kumar, loco branch secretary, NRMU. 

He said the train was later halted at Gill railway station for around one hour 28 minutes and it departed from there for Hisar around 6.55pm after another assistant loco pilot was deployed to run the train. Kumar said a complaint has been lodged at RPF (Ambala Division).

He said incidents of throwing of stones on the running train by the miscreants are common and it is very risky for not only the railway employees, but also for passengers.

He said these miscreants were among the people residing along railway tracks by encroaching upon the area. 

He added it was difficult to recognise these miscreants as these incidents mostly occur when the train is running at a speed of 90-100 km/hr. 

However, sub inspector Balvir Singh, GRP, Ludhiana, and inspector Anil Kumar, in-charge, RPF Ludhiana, said that these incidents were very rare. 

“We hardly receive any complaint in a month regarding such incidents,” they said, adding that these miscreants were mainly the children, playing near the tracks.

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