Rly police asked to desist from laws related to RPF

The Additional Director-General of Police Jaijeet Singh, in a letter, has asked the state railway police not to interfere in the laws of the Railway Act that were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) way back in July 2004.

In a letter written last week, Singh asked railway police authorities to desist from filing cases under several sections of the Railway Act and concentrate on cases relating to the Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Bombay Police Act and other laws available to the state police.

These sections deal with offences including travelling without a ticket, touting of tickets, alarm chain pulling, hawking, begging, drunken behaviour inside trains and railway premises, trespassing into railway territory and travelling dangerously on the railways.

"This is a good move. There are several instances when passengers come to the railway police to register these offences whereas the laws governing them are with the RPF. Most passengers cannot differentiate between the two forces or their uniforms. Demarcating these laws between the two will bring about better safety and security for passengers," said a railway police officer.

It is a clarion call for the RPF to pull up its socks and behave like a proper law enforcement agency rather than just a security appendage of railway bureaucracy
— RPF officer