It was 17 hours of hell for senior journalist Richa Banka and her husband, as they travelled from New Delhi railway station to Kolkata’s Sealdah station on February 24, 2019.

The duo was not only heckled for telling off a drunk person on their train but Richa—who was also suffering from symptoms of swine flu at the time—wasn’t given any medical attention throughout the train journey. None of the passengers on the train even intervened or came to the couple’s aid when the argument broke out. No female constable came to take down her complaint either. Instead, Richa had to try and get some sleep in her A/C compartment which had a dysfunctional A/C compressor. She also had to endure the train in-charge’s snide remarks when she asked for a written complaint to be lodged. To top it all off, the same train in-charge, when confronted by Richa in front of his superiors at Sealdah station, allegedly told her to show him where her clothes had been torn off, if she had indeed been in a scuffle.

Richa and her husband had reached the New Delhi railway station just in the nick of time on the day of the incident. With just a few minutes to go before the train departed, the duo jumped onto the first coach they saw. They were making their way towards their seats when a man, who was reeking of alcohol pushed Richa’s husband while getting off the train. He had come to see off some of his relatives who were on the same train. “My husband asked him to walk carefully and to look where he’s going,” recalls Richa. “But the man retaliated and got back onto the moving train and started hurling abuses at my husband, even trying to hit him. I was already inside the compartment at this time (the scuffle was happening near the door and in between two connecting coaches) but when I heard the commotion I came out running to defend my husband.”

By this time, even the other man’s relatives (a man and his wife) had come out and apologised to Richa and her husband, but when the duo was walking back to their compartment, this man (the one who was travelling with his wife) passed some comments. “When I confronted him, he started abusing me and subsequently pulled my hair. When my husband tried to save me, he assaulted my husband, while his wife held me hard and twisted my arm. He tore my cloth while all the other passengers were looking on at the commotion—but no one came to help us.”

By this time, the train in-charge, Mahavir Singh Yadav, who was not present when the scuffle broke out, came up to Richa and her husband and inquired what was going on. “I told him that I am a journalist and am unwell and that these people were manhandling me as well as putting allegations on me that I had pulled the chain. But he (Yadav), instead, started telling me if I was trying to threaten him by showing my press card. I had simply told him to call my editor and confirm whether I was unwell or not.”

***

Once Richa and her husband had seated themselves, two Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials—Girijesh Kumar and NS Yadav—came with the train’s log book to lodge their complaint. In the process, the RPF officials told Richa that both families would have to suffer because of the complaint. Moreover, when Richa started writing her complaint in the log book in English, one of them sniggered and told her that they weren’t that literate that they could read English. An irate and unwell Richa asked the RPF officials to leave while she wrote her complaint in the log book. She also called senior RPF officials at the New Delhi railway station to inform them of the incident.

Unhappy with Richa’s reaction, the RPF officials took her leave—only to return after 40 minutes with the drunk man’s relatives who wanted to lodge a complaint as well. “He went to the other compartment and asked them to lodge a complaint,” alleged Richa. “The other party started saying that I was the one who was drinking but I’m a complete teetotaller.”

This wasn’t the end of the couple’s ordeal. Richa’s compartment, which was an A/C one, had its compressor switched off at night. An unwell Richa, who was puking and running fever, had to go and ask the official to turn the compressor back on. At about 9.30 pm, when the train had reached Kanpur, the Kanpur RPF came on to the train to take cognisance of the incident. According to Richa, they simply informed her and her husband that someone would be calling them to note down their complaint. At about 1.30 am, Richa got a call from Kanpur Government Railway Police (GRP). “They told me that since the place of offence was Delhi, they would have to send the complaint to the New Delhi railway station. If an incident like this occurs at 4.30 pm, is it reasonable that the FIR that is lodged nearly nine hours after the incident?”

For the entire 17-hour journey, neither was any sort of medical assistance provided to Richa nor did any female constable come to check up on her. “Even when I reached Sealdah, I was made to wait for 15 minutes in the rain while they got me a wheelchair. When I started telling the other senior RPF and GRP officials about what had gone down on the train, the train in-charge, Mahavir Singh Yadav, started telling me that if indeed I had been manhandled, to show to show him where my clothes had been torn. This was on the platform in front of the entire station. I was stunned, angry, and began to take off my jacket to show him…that’s when the senior officials intervened.”

It’s been nearly ten days now since the horrific journey. However, the complaint from the Kanpur GRP is yet to reach the New Delhi railway station.

Richa is yet to receive a call from either of the two stations. “If I would have known that the complaint would have to be lodged at New Delhi, then I would have pulled the chain earlier itself,” said Richa. “Today, I am hurt that no one came forward to help my husband and I when we were in a time of need. Moreover, I am ashamed to be a journalist; to be someone who is fighting against the system from the inside. All this happened simply because I had told a government official (Mahavir Singh Yadav) that I would make a complaint in the log book. I am going to store my clothes so that I can keep them as evidence.”

Newslaundry has reached out to Kanpur GRP for comment. The copy will be updated once we received a response.