AHMEDABAD: The loco-pilot operating the Gwalior-Ahmedabad superfast train was assaulted and abused at three different places by a

on Saturday, between Sidhpur and Mehsana junctions, ostensibly because the train had run over a cow.

According to the complaint filed with Mehsana GRP (Government Railway Police), a cow had suddenly jumped on to the track at around 11.17am on Saturday, near Sidhpur junction in Patan district. Despite the stationmaster showing the red signal, the train run by loco-pilot G A Jhala slammed into it.

Jhala then got off from the train and contacted railway staff at a nearby station, to have the carcass removed from the engine. In the meantime, a man in his 30s, a passenger on the train, suddenly appeared and started abusing Jhala for ‘killing the cow’. “The man asked Jhala if he was blind for not seeing the cow on the tracks and started abusing him. Identifying himself as a gau rakshak, the man assaulted Jhala severely. In a little while, about 150 more gau rakshaks from nearby gathered at the spot and began to intimidate Jhala,” the complaint states.

After this, Jhala again contacted railway police using his walkie-talkie and informed them about the incident. “The gau rakshaks wanted the cow carcass ‘to be removed respectfully’. There were 1,500-odd passengers on the train, which had stopped just ahead of the Saraswati river bridge and it was not proper to stop at the bridge, as it would have been unsafe for passengers,” said a railway official.

The same man then assaulted Jhala again at Kamli and Unjha junctions, when the train stopped to have the carcass removed fully. At Mehsana, when Jhala got off the train to get help from police, the man attacked him again. This time, a cop intervened and the accused was taken into Mehsana GRP custody.

Mehsana GRP inspector Vinod Jaiswal told TOI, “When the railway employees were cutting off the cow carcass that was stuck to engine, the man identified as Bipinsingh Rajput (28), a resident of Odhav, asked them why they were cutting the cow. When railway personnel told him they were just removing the dead animal, he got belligerent and began asking them how they could kill a cow. He then assaulted the

.”

Jaiswal said Rajput has been arrested and booked under IPC Sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).