Mumbai: Woman pushed off train for resisting assault, loses arm

Mumbai: A 20-year-old woman lost her hand after allegedly being molested on a train and pushed onto the tracks at Naigaon station in neighbouring Palghar district, a railway official said on Thursday, November 12.

The shocking incident took place on the evening of November 4, a Western Railway official said. The alleged assailant, identified as Jitendra Girjappa Hirmukhe (53), a resident of Naigaon East, was arrested on November 9.

Accused fled amid commotion

The injured woman, her left hand severed, was rushed to Janseva Hospital in Vasai.

It was initially thought to be an accident. But in her statement recorded at a civic hospital in Mumbai on November 6, the woman told police that an unidentified man had molested her while travelling in a local train from Borivali to Naigaon, 40 km from Mumbai.

When she confronted Hirmukhe after alighting at the Naigaon station, he allegedly pushed her, causing her to fall onto the tracks between two coaches of the train. She attempted to get back on the platform; however, the train began moving, and her arm was caught under the wheels.

As she was helped back onto the platform by passengers and police, the accused fled the scene, taking advantage of the commotion.

‘He continued to touch me inappropriately’

“I had boarded the train at Borivali. As we were approaching Naigaon station, a man – the one who was touching me inappropriately – began to molest me. I confronted him,” the woman said in a video statement.

“Even after I got off the train, he continued to touch me inappropriately. I asked him, ‘Don’t you have a mother or sister at home?'”

They reportedly exchanged abuses, and when she tried to drive him away using her footwear, the accused struck her with his own slipper. “Then he pushed me off the train.”

Case registered under BNS sections, including attempt to murder

The Government Railway Police (GRP) then registered a case at Bhayander GRP police station under sections 74 (assault or criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty) and 117(2) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

A joint team of the GRP and Railway Protection Force launched an investigation. Section 109 of the BNS, relating to attempt to murder, was subsequently added to the case, he said.

The accused is currently in judicial custody, and further investigation is underway, the official said.

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