Mumbai: A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court has granted a pre-arrest bail to three Central Railway (CR) ticket collectors (TCs) who were booked for misbehaving with a female collegestudent.
The student was travelling in train with a valid ticket but she was found to have completed her journey more than two hours after buying the ticket. As per the rules, a passenger is supposed to complete the local train journey within two hours of buying the ticket. The TCs had said that the girl must have been roaming with her boyfriend and hence got late. The girl, a resident of Ambernath, at that time was going to take admission in JJ School of Arts near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).
Vitor Singh (25), Sandeep Kumar (29) and Ramch-andra Khatpe, who had been booked under various sections of IPC and POCSO Act, had moved the court seeking anticipatory bail.
According to the police, the girl and a friend reached CST around 1 pm on July 13, 2017. At the time, a TC after checking her ticket told her that after buying a ticket it is necessary to complete the journey within two hours and she has travelled beyond that time and hence asked her to pay a fine of Rs 540.
Another TC then allegedly took Rs 200 from them but refused to give any receipt.
The girl then made the TC speak to her father and uncle (an advocate) on the phone. After speaking to them, the TCs allegedly passed sexually coloured remarks against her, following which she filed a complaint against them.
The accused in their anticipatory bail plea argued they were falsely implicated in the case and they had not committed any offence. The FIR was filed four days after incident. According to them the division officer, commercial branch, CST inquired into the matter and found nothing against them and custodial their interrogation was not required. After hearing arguments, the judge granted their anticipatory bail plea on personal bond of Rs 15,000 each with a surety of the same amount.
