The police lathi-charged protesters at Badlapur railway station near Mumbai on Tuesday (August 20) evening to break up the day-long rail roko agitation against the alleged sexual abuse of two girls at a kindergarten. The police used force to disperse the protesters who were hundreds in number at around 6 pm. The incident came hours after they hurled stones at the railway station while rejecting pleas of the state government and senior police officers to call off the agitation, which affected the services of local trains and forced diversion of some outstation trains, an official said.
Trains remain affected
The local train traffic remained impacted for several hours on a Central Railway section in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region as the protesters, which also included women, stayed put on tracks throughout the day. They demanded capital punishment for the arrested attendant of the school.
The tracks at Badlapur station were finally cleared of demonstrators after 6 pm, the police official said. In the wake of the protest, police and RPF personnel were deployed in large numbers at the railway station and the school, which was vandalised by protesters earlier in the day.
Angry parents of the school children and local citizens, including several women, gathered outside the school on Tuesday morning and also resorted to a 'rail roko' protest at the railway station, blocking the path of local trains from around 8.30 am.
Some of the protesters later damaged the school property by breaking its gate, window panes, benches and doors, police said. At the railway station, some of the agitators hurled stones during the protest.
What did the police say?
Deputy Commissioner of Police, zone IV, Sudhakar Pathare, told reporters that a case had been registered against the accused, who was nabbed "within three-and-a-half hours of registering the FIR".
He said three police officers, including two women, are gathering all evidence to ensure a comprehensive probe. Pathare in a statement urged the residents of Badlapur to avoid taking to the streets or engaging in protests, as such actions could hinder the investigation process.
Accused arrested
The local police had arrested a school attendant Akshay Shinde from the school on August 17 for allegedly abusing two kindergarten girls, aged three and four years. According to the complaint, he abused the girls in the toilet of the school. The girls told their parents that the attendant touched them inappropriately, following which the parents reached the police station and filed a case against him. The police registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was later arrested.
(With inputs from agencies)
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