‘Drunk’ man attempts to hijack goods train, held

In a rare incident, an unidentified person tried to take over the controls of a goods train waiting at Kalyan, and was overpowered after injuring two railway drivers.

Alok Bohra, Central Railway Mumbai division’s senior divisional security commissioner of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), confirmed the incident. “Action is being initiated under appropriate sections of the railway act,” he said.

Sources said that the goods train was on its way out of Mumbai to Igatpuri, and was standing at a signal near Kalyan for a “line-clear,” when the inebriated man climbed the footplate of the engine and tried to take over the controls, in an attempt to make the train start. Sources said he was overpowered by the railway staff on duty. The incident happened around late afternoon.

“He was either drunk or a drug addict, but heavily built, and so four RPF personnel and the drivers had to struggle to bring him under control. In the melee, two railway staff were injured, and they have been shifted to the Kalyan Railway Hospital, where they are recuperating,’’ sources added.

This New Year’s Eve, a youngster tried to hijack the engine of a train to gift it to his girlfriend at Kursela station in Bihar. He was overpowered, arrested, and remanded to judicial custody.