A sessions court on Monday sentenced two footpath dwellers in their thirties for placing a fence on the railway tracks between Marine Lines and Charni Road railway stations in 2018, thereby endangering lives.
Gautam Patel resided on a footpath near Bombay Hospital and Abbas Shaikh, near Police Gymkhana. Alert constables attached to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) were patrolling at Marine Lines railway station on Dec 6, 2018 when they noticed two men cutting the fence behind Hindu Gymkhana. Constable Hazarilal Mina had rushed with his colleague by taking a local train and asked the motorman to stop it before the spot. By then the duo had started fleeing and the fence was on the railway tracks. The policemen had removed the fence and the train had proceeded.
During trial, the constable and his colleague as well as the motorman who had ferried them by the local to the spot, had all testified. Additional Sessions Judge UM Padwad said in the judgement that the act of putting the fence on the track was definitely sufficient to endanger the safety of commuters and the accused can always be attributed such knowledge as the consequence of their act.
Their advocates had sought leniency on account of them being first-time offenders. The court considered that the two had been in custody since their arrest soon after the act and their age while deciding the quantum of sentence under the Railways Act. It sentenced them to the period they had already undergone in custody.
