Honourable Sir
Please excuse this intrusion.
My name is Naveen Chand. I am a native of Hyderabad, Telangana. I used to work for the Indian Railways during 1995-1997 as Ticket Collector, then went on to doing my MBA from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), a premier business school founded by Padmavibhushan Dr. V. Kurien, the Father of the White Revolution.
I am writing on behalf of my brother, Dayanand, whose valuables got stolen from an AC 2-tier coach of Train Number 12724, Andhra Pradesh Express, on 05 October 2015 during the night hours. My brother, along with his family, was inside the coach, on their way from New Delhi to Hyderabad.
My brother lost his laptop, INR 20,000 in cash, two mobile phones (1 Android phone and 1 iPhone), and a pair of gold earrings. Along with him in the AC Coach (HA1) were his wife and two kids. The incident happened sometime during the late night hours, when the train was pacing between Agra and Jhansi, when my brother and family were asleep.
Though we do not have direct evidence to report, we are suspicious of the coach attendant who was sleeping inside the coach right opposite to the cabin my brother and family were in. After realizing that the bag containing the valuables was stolen, my brother reported to the cabin attendant and said he would lodge a complaint against him with the Railway Police. Surprisingly, the cabin attendant started pleading and begging not to. This strengthened the suspicion against the attendant. There was no RPF on the train when this incident happened. The TTE on the train contacted the control room to arrange an RPF who boarded at Bhopal Railway station. My brother registered an FIR with that RPF personnel. But the RPF did not include the name of the coach attendant whom we suspect. Upon my brother’s request, the RPF searched the attendant’s possessions, and found a bottle of liquor. They could not find the stolen bag.
We later tweeted to the Official Twitter Handles of some high-ranking Indian Railway officers, including the General Manager of North Central Railways, the General Manager of South Central Railways, and the Divisional Railway Managers of all divisions in both these zones.
We are thankful to the General Manager of North Central Railways and the General Manager of South Central Railways who took the initiative to reply to us and assured us that they would investigate the matter and take necessary actions. Unfortunately, however, we are not sure what results these investigations would yield. My brother is quite concerned as he has lost some of his valuables, and he doubts he will ever get them back. The laptop contains lots of important and privileged data, including precious family photographs, not all of which have been duplicated in backups.
We are grateful to the Government of India for allowing citizens to reach the Railway officials via social media. It is indeed a powerful tool for citizens and officers to communicate.
Sir, the intention of reaching out to you is to highlight the risks passengers face when using the services of Indian Railways. If AC 2-tier coach, that has highly secured doors, and is manned by a coach attendant, could be so vulnerable to thefts, what then might be the plight of the Sleeper Class or general compartments? The average railway passengers travel in these classes, and are exposed to huge risks. The risk is not just to their baggage and valuables, but to their lives too. Staff negligence like sleeping inside the coach, unmanning the doors, or carrying alcohol on board make train journeys unsafe and a cause of immense insecurity to the passengers.
I would appreciate if some urgent steps and actions are taken to maximize safety of passengers. I genuinely hope RPF and other railway officials will give their best to retrieve my brother’s stolen valuables. I trust your leadership to the Indian Railways.
I am copying this email to the Honourable Minister of State for Railways as well as the Chairman of Railway Board.
Kind regards and warm wishes
Naveen Chand
On behalf of Dayanand Kanyamarala
Date of Journey: 05 October 2015, 06 October 2015
PNR Number: 2209831546
Coach Number: HA1
Train: 12724, Andhra Pradesh Express
Other Passengers: Nandita Kanyamarala, Tarun Kanyamarala, Trisha Kanyamarala
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