BHOPAL: Within a week after a 24-year-old woman was kicked out of a moving train for resisting rape in Chattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, government railway police (GRP) claimed to have arrested the offender.
The accused has been identified as Rambabu Yadav, 34, resident of Suri village in Lalitpur district (UP).
He was produced before local court on Monday which remanded him to judicial custody for three days.
Four different teams were set up by the GRP Jabalpur division for his arrest.
A mobile phone recovered from the spot helped police to establish his identity.
“It wouldn’t have been easy for us to solve this case had he not visited the scene of crime to ensure she was dead,” said GRP SP Vinayak Verma.
He would have killed her, if villagers hadn’t gathered at the spot before his arrival, said the officer.
After pushing her off the train, Yadav got down at Rajnagar station and walked 4 km along the tracks to reach her. To his surprise there were many people trying to help her.
Yadav fled from the scene as some of the villagers got suspicious seeing an unfamiliar face in the locality. He dropped his mobile phone in panic which was handed over to the police along with his description.
Police traced the phone to a JCB contractor who identified the number and said that he had allotted it to one of his old employees. He also confirmed descriptions given by the villagers.
After getting specific inputs, the suspect's house was kept under surveillance. Since Yadav didn’t turn up, his family members were kept under close watch. Police got the person who was delivering food to his hideout and arrested him with the help of Tikamgarh police.
During interrogation he reportedly confessed to his crime. Police said that he was into an extramarital affair with a Chattarpur woman and had gone to drop her at the Bageshwar Dham temple that day. While returning he found this woman alone and made a rape attempt.
Meanwhile the victim has been referred to Gwalior for a surgery where district collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh has provided funds from the red cross society.
The survivor is a resident of Uttar Pradesh and was in Chattarpur to visit Bhageshwar Dham temple, 35 km from the district headquarters on Khajuraho-Panna Road. She had vowed to visit the temple for 21 Tuesdays and it was her last visit on the day of the incident.
On the way back, she boarded a general compartment of the Khajuraho-Mahoba Express special passenger train (01822), which leaves Khajuraho at 5:15pm. Her attacker jumped into the bogies just seconds before the train started. Furious, he tried to force himself on her but she fought back and broke free.
There were no other passengers in the coach, and the man started making lewd remarks, she has told police. She ignored him but he got physical, and she slapped him.
She ran towards the next coach, but that too was empty and he grabbed her again. This time, she bit his finger so hard that it started bleeding. He got violent and started kicking her in the abdomen and repeatedly punched her in the face.
Then, he tried to push her off the train. She tried to hold on to the handles at the gate, praying that the train would arrive at some station before her strength ran out. He continued kicking her. Then he began kicking her wrist. She lost her grip and fell from the running train, said police.
A railway employee saw her lying injured and unconscious by the tracks and rang up the police control room. A Dial 100 team rescued her and took her to a government hospital where she was immediately wheeled into surgery.
SP Vinayak Verma said that Tikamgarh SP Prashant Khare, CSP Virendra Singh Pawar and his team played a major role in this case. Similarly, GRP’s ASP Lokesh Marko, SI Akansha Singh, Manisha Dubey and TI GRP also did commendable work in the investigations, said Verma.
