Avdhesh Dubey in the video Avdhesh Dubey in the video

A hawker selling toys on trains was arrested from Surat railway platform on Friday by Railway Protection Force (RPF) after a video of him mimicking and mocking politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, went viral on social media.

Identified as Avdhesh Dubey, RPF has filed an FIR against him under several sections of Railway Act, including section 44 (prohibition on hawking and begging), 145 B (spreading nuisance or using abusive language in railway carriage), 147 (unlawful entry into train), among others.

For the last few days, a six-minute-long video purportedly showing Dubey doing a parody of a host of politicians like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, while selling toys to the passengers on a train had gone viral on several social media platforms.

A native of Varanasi, Dubey had migrated to Valsad two years ago, and since then he had been selling toys to train passengers travelling between Vapi and Surat, said sources in the RPF.

“We have charged Avdhesh Dubey for unauthorised vending,” Railway Protection Force Inspector (Surat) Ishwar Singh Yadav said.

“The video clip of Avdhesh Dubey has become very popular on social media and we also received his video. In the video clip he was seen making remarks on the political leaders,” Yadav said, adding “his way of talking to customers is quite impressive”.

Dubey was later produced before a Railway Court on Friday afternoon and was sent to judicial custody for 10 days.

Clarification by the Ministry of Railways

RPF Surat arrested Shri Avdhesh Dubey during a drive against unauthorised persons and registered a case vide CR no1228/19 under section 144(A), 145(B), 147 of the Railways Act and was produced before the court. The Railway Magistrate verified the past record of the defaulter and came to know his repeated offences under section 144 RA (12th time including this case). The defaulter himself confessed to the magistrate that he has been doing unauthorized hawking in trains since 2005.

As the Railway Magistrate has been dealing such repeated offenders strongly, he imposed him the punishment of 10 days imprisonment and fine Rs.3500/- pls. It is pertinent to mention here that Rly magistrate has imposed imprisonment up to 30 days also in other such cases. It is routine action by RPF, Surat against unauthorized vendors and there was no specific reason behind prosecuting Shri.Avdhesh Dubey who has already been booked for this offence 11 times (7 times by Valsad Post and 4 times by Surat Post).

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