Rs. 1 lakh compensation to a commuter?
We too were shocked to know!
Here’s what happened:
A resident of Mira Road, Unnikrishnan Nair, boarded the three-tier AC on November 12, back in 2012, and was robbed of 2 mobile phones, a bag of gold ornaments, and few important documents (a total loss of Rs. 4.72 lakh) while on his way home from Trissur.
Consequently, the Konkan Railway has been held guilty of what happened then and ordered by the District Consumer Redressal Forum to pay Rs. 1 lakh compensation to the robbed passenger. All this happened due to the absence of proper security.
Nair rushed to check with the Travel Ticket Examiner or TTE as well, who was not available. To his surprise, even the railway police was unavailable in the train compartment.
This was not the end of it…
He attempted to file an FIR at the Madgaon Railway Police Station but was refused, though his complaint was accepted after much reluctance. Furthermore, his attempts to register an offence with the Karwar Station Master’s Office went in vain.
What could be more disappointing?
His offence was lodged after nearly four months. Kudos to him and his patience!
It was only when Director General of Police at Bangalore Railway Police intervened, the Karwar Rural Police Station registered a fresh FIR on March 14, 2013.
Nair stated that had there been property security or railway police, the incident wouldn’t have occurred.However, the railways argued with him and held him responsible for not taking care of his luggage.
The wise thing Nair did
Without wasting any time he had rushed to the police and made attempts to lodge his complaint, even though the authorities were non-cooperative, which led to a delay.
The forum took notice of the fact that no evidence was presented to corroborate that the TTE or any railway police personnel was available at the time of incident, and hence it was difficult to rely on the official version from the railways. AZ Telgote, the president of additional Thane consumer redressal forum and the member TA Thool said, “It is deficiency in service on the part of the railway administration that the incident in question occurred and the complainant had to lose his valuables and had to suffer mental agony. Had railway administration provided adequate security in the compartments of the train on that night, perhaps the incident in question could have been avoided.”
We hope no passenger ever goes through such an experience.
In case you have your train tickets booked already, please check for PNR Status Enquiry.
We hope you have an amazing train journey, whenever you travel. 🙂
