20-year-old gets sentenced to 10 year life imprisonment for rail commuter's death

The sessions court on Thursday sentenced a 20-year-old youth to ten years of imprisonment for hitting a rail commuter with a stick which led to the woman's death.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000, of which an amount of Rs5,000 will be given to the son of the deceased who witnessed his mother falling from the train.

The incident occurred on January 23, 2011 when deceased Daksha Ghugal had gone to visit a relative in Chinchpokli. At 9.03pm Daksha and her son Hritik took a train back to Kurla. When the train left Sion station, Daksha received a call on her mobile phone, and since there was network problem, she moved towards the train's door. The moment she reached the door, accused Rajesh Kumar Singh, who was standing near the railway line attacked Daksha with a stick, as a result of which Daksha fell and one hand and a leg got crushed under the moving train.

However, Rakesh then approached her and robbed her of her belongings as well as her mobile phone. Meanwhile, other commuters who had witnessed the incident pulled the train chain. Daksha was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, but she succumbed to the injuries within the next ten days.

Meanwhile, the police had started searching for the accused and were able to trace him through the mobile phone's IMEI number which the accused had robbed.

Public prosecutor, advocate Vijay Malankar said, "The accused was identified by eye witness Vijay Diwedi, who claimed that the accused had first tried to attack him. After he escaped unscathed, the accused attacked Daksha. The accused was also identified by the son of the victim as well as the motorman of the train."