55,373 incidents of chain-pulling in 2019, over 45,000 arrested: Indian Railways

The number of chain pulling incidents reported in 2019 was 55,373 and the RPF arrested 45,784 people and prosecuted 43,951, according to the latest figures released by the Indian Railways.

NEW DELHI: The Railway Protection Force of (RPF) arrested over 45,000 people in connection with nearly 55,373 incidents of chain-pulling, which resulted in unnecessary delays and causing great inconvenience to passengers in 2019, the figures released by the Indian Railways said. RPF DG Arun Kumar, who released the figures on Tuesday, said that over 400 people were arrested for hurling stones at trains. ''While the number of chain pulling incidents reported in 2019 was 55,373, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested 45,784 people and prosecuted 43,951,'' the RPF DG said.

The senior RPF official added that the incidents of chain-pulling affected 46,223 trains during the period.  More than 1,000 trains were pelted with stones during this period, while 659 cases were registered and 404 people arrested in this regard.

”We have deployed additional forces at the places where chain-pulling and stone-pelting were most prevalent. Since May 2019, we have seen that the number of chain-pulling incidents has come down. In case of stone pelting, we have sensitised people and those cases have also reduced,” RPF DG Arun Kumar said. 

Official RPF data also said its security helpline number 182, which is operational 24×7 for 365 days to address the security-related grievances of passengers in distress, received 60,453 calls and attended to 31,851 complaints received on Twitter in 2019.

The RPF also conducted 1,57,354 ticket-checking drives, arrested 54,15,739 people and recovered Rs 2,15,65,53,964 last year. ”To facilitate a safe and comfortable journey for women passengers, besides the regular drives, special drives were also carried out to restrict the entry of male passengers in the coaches reserved for ladies,”Arun Kumar said.

As many as 5,938 drives were conducted, 7,151 people arrested and a total amount of Rs 6,85,890 was recovered in fines from them, according to the figures relaesed by the Indian Railways said. 

The RPF also rescued 446 children from the clutches of human-traffickers and arrested 68 people in connection with these incidents in 2019.

Besides, 16,011 children (run away, drug addicts, destitute, kidnapped, left behind, missing etc.) were rescued last year, taking the total figure of the children rescued by the force to 16,457.

The RPF dealt with 13,204 cases of luggage left behind by passengers, valued at around Rs 48,58,18,444, and handed those over to the owners in 2019.

The top-performing zones were - Southern Railway (2,423 cases valued at Rs 2.98 crore), South Central Railway (1,704 cases valued at Rs 3.35 crore) and Western Railway (1,386 cases valued at Rs 3.14 crore), according to the data released by the Indian Railways.

The force also dealt with coal and petroleum theft, with 444 and 56 people arrested in such cases respectively. 'The RPF, which was empowered to make seizures and arrests under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in April 2019, made 427 arrests and recovered a total amount of Rs 12,83,65,031 last year.