RPF Of NF Railway Seized One AK47 From Lumding Station, Two Firearms From New Coochbehar Station

HT Bureau

GUWAHATI, April 7: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of NF Railway seized one AK47 rifle along with a magazine from Deoghar Express at Lumding Station and two firearms (country made) loaded with live ammunition from New Coochbehar Station. One person managed to run away and two persons were taken into custody.

In an incident on Tuesday, a suspicious looking bag came to the notice of joint team of RPF comprising of assistant sub-inspector (ASI)/Azimuddin Ahmed, constable Dharmendra Kumar and Balram Singh of 4^th Bn/C-Coy/RPSF (Railway Protection Special Force) and Government Railway Police (GRP) staff of Lumding during their routine checking in train no. 15625 DN (Deoghar Express) at Lumding Railway Station. On interrogation, the owner of the bag revealed that the bag contained only a blanket. When the RPF & GRP team tried to open the bag for verification, the possessor of the bag jumped out of the train from the opposite side of the platform and managed to escape. The person was immediately chased by RPSF staff who were on duty at the platform, but he could not be apprehended as there was heavy rush of people/devotees on account of Shitala Puja near Lumding Railway Station.  On opening the bag, one AK47 rifle along with a magazine was found. The seized arm and magazine was handed over to OC/GRP/Lumding and a case was registered under Arms Act.

In another incident on April 3, based on information, a team of Crime Prevention and Detection Squad (CPDS)/Alipurduar of RPF along with GRP/New Coochbehar conducted a joint drive at New Coochbehar railway station. During the drive, they apprehended one person named Ratan Barman hailing from Uttar Parokata, Alipurduar on platform no. 7. In another incident on April 4, the same team of RPF and GRP apprehended one person named Pradip Das hailing from Uttar Parokata, Alipurduar on platform no. 5. On searching both the persons, the team recovered one iron made improvised firearm having butt, body, barrel, active trigger and spring loaded with one live ammunition from each of them. Both the apprehended person could not produce any authentic document for possession of the firearm and ammunition. On further interrogation, both the accused persons confessed that they had come to New Coochbehar station with an intention to commit crime in the moving trains. The recovered firearms and ammunition were seized and both the persons were handed over to OC/GRP/ New Coochbehar and a case was registered under Arms Act.

RPF of NFR is involved in train escorting, platform duties and several other duties to ascertain illegal activities in trains and platforms. To monitor such activities and for strengthening passenger-security measures, RPF is standing vigil. Aided with CCTV systems and other advanced technologies, RPF in NFR has been strengthened furthermore to assure security and safety.