The number of chain-pulling cases on Western Railway (WR) trains moving between Vapi and Surat stations in Gujarat has been on the rise for some time.

Railway officials have now concluded that this is predominantly the handiwork of bootleggers brewing a fast one in supposedly dry Gujarat.

The modus operandi, according to WR officials, is to load liquor brewed in the Union Territory of Daman onto WR's trains at Vapi, the nearest railway station, and then stopping the train after pulling chain at several locations -- almost all of them close to roads running parallel to the tracks -- on the Valsad-Surat stretch.

A fortnight earlier, WR's chief of the Mumbai unit of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Anand Vijay Jha, met the superintendent of the Baroda Railway Police to seek the help of the Gujarat police to arrest the trend.

Numbers show that between January and April this year, the RPF apprehended 18 bootleggers on the Dahanu Road-Surat section and hand them over to the railway police.

During this period, 2,728 liquor bottles worth Rs 70,090 were confiscated. "However, in a large number of alarm chain-pulling cases, the culprits escape before RPF or railway personnel arrive at the spot," said an official.

Speaking to dna, Shailendra Kumar, divisional railway manager, WR, said: "There is a problem of alarm chain-pulling in this section, which, we believe, is linked to bootlegging. It happens mostly at night and the RPF is co-ordinating with the Gujarat police to fight the problem."

For a short-staffed RPF and the fact that the strictest of prohibition has not stopped the common man from going for his tipple, the fight is a tough one.

RPF senior commandant Jha admitted as much to dna. "It is a losing battle but we are trying our best. The number of RPF personnel on the section is less, so we are unable to escort too many trains there. The other problem is that the RPF has no power to act against bootleggers. That is purely within the jurisdiction of the state and the railway police," said Jha.

Incidentally, earlier this week, matters came to a head over the all-too familiar jurisdictional issues between RPF personnel and railway cops from Vapi station over the arrest and handover of a few bootleggers.

"It keeps happening. We apprehend bootleggers and hand them over to the railway police, who, possibly, are not too thrilled with the extra work we give them," said an RPF official.