Stone pelting on Jan Shatabdi in Gaya: 2 passengers injured, window panels damaged

Two passengers were injured, and glass panels of a coach were damaged after miscreants attacked the train following a dispute over a reserve seat in the Jan Shatabdi Express at Ishwar Chaudhary Halt on Gaya-Koderma section of East Central Railway late on Sunday night.

Injured passenger Rajiv Kumar told reporters at Gaya that he boarded the train from Gomo station, but two youths had already occupied his reserved berth in D5 coach. The youths refused to vacate the seat and in turn asked Kumar to adjust till Paharpur station where they had to get off.

When they did not budget even at Paharpur station, Kumar and some other passengers again asked them to leave. But the youths got furious, started hurling abuses and threatened to shoot all passengers in the coach, Kumar said.

By around 10pm, the train reached Ishwar Chaudhary Halt where the youths deboarded and started pelting stones, breaking the window glass panels and badly injuring passengers Santosh Kumar and Rajiv Kumar. Some passengers even made a video of the incident and put it on social media.

The passengers then dialled the railway helpline number and tried to contact officials when the train reached Gaya junction. However, when they did not receive any response, they filed an online complaint, Rajiv Kumar said.

Amritendu Shekhar Thakur, superintendent of police (rail) of Patna, said that he directed rail DySP of Gaya to initiate an inquiry immediately after the incident came to his notice. The government railway police are trying to identify the miscreants with the help of CCTV footage and the video clips taken by the passengers.