RAIL TRAGEDY Stunt duo ducks suddenly, victim caught unawares

RPF Plans Crackdown On Risky Behaviour

Two young men, who had boarded a Borivli-bound local from Santa Cruz, were trying to touch poles along railway tracks and high-five commuters on trains coming from the opposite direction. 

    Around 2.40 pm, between Goregaon and Jogeshwari stations, they tried their stunt again. 

    Watching them, a man on the other local extended his hand. But Mohit and Bhavani realized that the train was hurtling at a great speed and they could get hurt. They ducked as the train approached. The hand of the traveller on the other train hit 26-year-old Maqbool Ansari, who lost his balance and fell on the tracks. 

    "The other commuters pinned down Mohit and Bhavani, and handed them to o u r p e r s o n n e l when the train stopped at Malad station. A few of our officers then went to the spot where Ansari had fallen and rushed him to Bhagwati Hospital. But he was severely injured and pronounced dead at the hospital," Karyakarte said. 

    Mohit and Bhavani have been arrested by the GRP on charges of negligence and Section 304 (A) of the Indian Penal Code, a bailable offence, has been slapped on them. 

    They were produced before a metropolitan court on Thursday and remanded to judicial custody. The GRP is checking whether they have any criminal antecedents. 

    While Mohit works at an imitation jewellery shop, Bhavani is employed with a private firm. Both hail from Rajasthan's Pali district and both are unmarried. 

    GRP officials said this is the first such case of its kind on the Western line where a commuter, who wasn't involved in a stunt, inadvertently died because of it. 

    The GRP will now be on the alert for commuters performing stunts, risking their lives as well as those of others. 

    The incident has prompted the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to plan a fresh crackdown on youths performing stunts on trains. 

Dangerous video that went viral 

In August 2011, a video of a young man and his friend performing extremely dangerous stunts in a moving suburban train, posted online, went viral. The video features youngsters 'skating' along railway platforms, slapping poles by dangerously leaning out of the train, leaping on to girders of a bridge and jumping back into the compartment — and all the while the train is in motion between Cotton Green and Reay Road TRAVELLING DANGEROUSLY, A CRIME 

WR now plans to intensify the awareness drive against dangerous travel 

Besides, it will deploy more people at key stations to keep a watch on stuntmen and those travelling dangerously on a train's roof or footboard Any person found travelling dangerously will be booked under Section 156 of the Indian Railway Act He can be fined Rs 500 or imprisoned for six months or both after being produced before the magistrate

1. Mohit and Bhavani Singh high-five passengers of trains running in opposite direction of their Borivli-bound local

2. Between Goregaon and Jogeshwari, a passenger in the opposite train extends his hand, but the duo ducks

3. The passenger who had extended his hand ends up hitting a random commuter, Maqbool Ansari, who loses his balance; he falls on tracks