TTE suspended, pleads not guilty

Railway authorities on Thursday suspended travel ticket examiner Manoj Kumar, accused of fatally assaulting French national Franck Wilfred on April 29.

Ferozepur divisional railway manager (DRM) Vishvesh Chaube told HT that they would support competent authorities regarding the criminal case against the TTE. "If found guilty, he would also be dismissed from service," Chaube said. He however refused to comment on the conduct or career profile of the accused TTE, stating that he did not know it off-hand.

Ambala DRM P K Sanghi, in whose divisional jurisdiction the French national was allegedly assaulted, refused to comment on the issue on the ground that the staff on board the Sachkhand Express was from the Ferozepur division of Railways. "I am not aware as to what happened inside the train," Sanghi said.

Nothing to do with the incident: TTE

Arrested travel ticket examiner Manoj Kumar told a local television channel that he had nothing to do with this incident. "The foreigner had a tiff with some co-passengers. These passengers only informed me. Nothing happened in my presence. I never spoke to the foreigner. In fact, I did not even see his face,'' the accused said on Wednesday.

When asked how the documents of the French national were recovered from his possession, Kumar said, "The passengers handed over the papers to me. I in turn handed them over to the another official. It was his responsibility."

On his arrest by the police, the accused said that he had been detained for questioning.