Man pulls chain for friend to catch train, gets caught

Pulling the alarm chain of a Trivandrum-bound Netravati Express thrice at the Panvel station on Saturday so that his colleague could board the same train proved costly for a 43-year-old central government employee, as he was arrested by the railway protection force (RPF).

“Raman Rajan, a Bhandup resident, was arrested by the RPF under section 141 of the Indian Railways Act and was released by the local court the same evening after paying a fine of Rs1,000,” said an RPF officer.

Rajan, who was making a trip to his hometown in Trivandrum, had boarded a sleeper class coach on the Netravati Express at Thane station. His friend, 63-year-old AK Kumaran Nair, a retired central government employee and a Nalasopara resident, was to travel with him.
However, Nair missed the train at Thane station.

When the train reached Panvel at around 1pm, Nair contacted Rajan on his cell phone and told him that he was in a taxi and would reach Panvel within the next 5-10 minutes. He requested Rajan to try and stop the train.

So when the train started moving, Rajan pulled the chain to stop it. Two minutes later, when the train started moving again, Rajan reached for the chain once more. He did this thrice in a span of eight minutes, after which a train guard along with Panvel RPF inspector PN Sansare and his team rushed to the coach in which Rajan was travelling and arrested him.

What the law says
If a person, without reasonable and sufficient cause, makes use of any means provided in a train for communication between passengers and the staffer in charge of the train, he shall be punished.