Matribhumi Locals or Ladies Special suburban trains run by Eastern Railway which a few months ago have been witness to pitched fight between male and female passengers got embroiled in a fresh controversy over the death of a middle aged man late on Tuesday evening.
Forty-year-old Dipak Sharma who had boarded the Howrah-Bandel Matribhumi fell off the train and died between Uttarpara and Hind Motor stations.
According to his family members and some passengers, he was allegedly pushed off the train by a female constable of the Railway Protection Force.
The constable and others accompanying her were allegedly assaulted by enraged locals at Hind Motor station who blocked the tracks for several hours.
“The condition of the constable has improved. No one has been arrested so far,” Mehmood Akhtar, Superintendent of RPF, Howrah, told The Hindu.
Train services were disrupted till late on Tuesday evening as passengers vandalised coaches and squatted on the tracks.
The protesters threw stones at the police at Hind Motor and an official was injured. The blockade was lifted after the police resorted to lathi charge. The rail service became normal at around 11 p.m.
Meanwhile, an elderly man died at the over-crowded Howrah station thronged by stranded passengers.
Though railway services were normal on the Howrah Main line there was tension in the Uttarpara -- Hind Motor area of Hooghly district as the body of the victim was handed over to the family after post mortem.
Disruption of railway services was reported few months ago on the Saldah-Bongaon line over male passengers demanding that some of the compartments of the Matribhumi Locals be made general in the Sealdah section.
Several passengers including police personnel were injured in stone throwing among men and woman passengers at Khardah railway station in North 24 Parganas.
According to his family members and some passengers, he was allegedly pushed off the train by a female constable of the Railway Protection Force