Dissuaded, ‘smokers’ throw army aspirant out of moving train

Asking a group of fellow passengers to stop smoking in train cost dearly to a 23-year-old Army aspirant from Jammu who was thrown out of a moving train near the Ludhiana railway station. The incident took place over a month ago and it came to light recently as the victim, Tushar Thakur, was critical, not in a condition to speak.

He lies bedridden in a private hospital here with a few surgeries already done and a major spinal operation lined up as soon as his lungs get strong enough.

Tushar had left Jammu for Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat for the Service Selection Board interview on May 19. Same evening his father found that he had been admitted to the civil hospital in Ludhiana. “I dropped him at the Jammu station and even talked to him on phone when the train crossed Mukerian. Later in the evening when his cousin rang him up, the phone was answered by a civil hospital employee. I asked a friend in Ludhiana to have him moved to a better hospital and rushed for Ludhiana right away,” said Virender, his father.

In his written complaint filed on June 23, Tushar claimed his train was on the outskirts of the city when he headed towards the toilet and saw three boys smoking. Asking them to stop smoking, he proceeded ahead but while returning the boys caught hold of him and threw him out.

Not able to speak properly due to the installation of food pipe, Tushar, his father claimed, regained senses a few days later and explained them about his ordeal through hand gestures and typing messages. “He can use his phone and type. He narrated the whole incident but it was only after a news channel broadcast his story the GRP officials came in and sought a typed complaint,” he said.

When asked what took the Government Railway Police (GRP) so long to register a complaint, station house officer (SHO) Jatinder Singh said, “The boy was not in a condition to give statement without which we couldn’t have filed a complaint. We tried getting his statement but doctors said he was not fit for it yet.”

A case under sections 308 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against three unidentified persons.

“We are trying to get CCTV footage from different stations to find out who those boys were. But since the Jammu youth lost his ticket in the train, we don’t know which bogie he was travelling in,” the SHO added. He didn’t confirm where exactly he was thrown out of the train, but said it was somewhere on the outskirts of the city.

Tushar has undergone a surgery to fix his dislocated hip joints and a plastic surgery to fix his jaws. Now as his ribs healed and his lungs are getting stronger, he is to undergo another spinal surgery which will at least make his upper body fully functional.

His father claimed to have spent around ₹8 lakh on his treatment so far. He lamented that nobody from the railways visited the family so far. “I expected the administration or the railways to reach out, but no one has checked up on us,” he added.