M Sathya murder case: CB-CID team visits railway station

CHENNAI: A team of CB-CID officers including women landed at St Thomas Mount railway station on Saturday afternoon and began probing Thursday’s murder of 20-year-old M Sathya.
Around 3pm, around 10 CB-CID officers arrived on platform 1 and heard from a Government Railway Police officer how D Satish had pushed Sathya onto the path of a suburban train.They then checked the position of the two CCTV cameras, one just above the scene of crime and the other above the steps of the foot-over bridge on platform 1. “We have four special teams now. Our officers will examine cameras in the station and on the platform,” said an officer.
Curious passengers gathered on the platform were not allowed to come closer to the inspection area. Many among them said the law enforcers wake up only when such an incident occurred. “It was after Swathi’s murder [in 2016], CCTV cameras cropped up in all railway stations. Why should it cost a life to introduce such safety measures,” wondered T Sadagopan, a consumer activist from Pattabiram.
A S Kumari, chairperson, Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women, said she would write to the central government, urging it to increase the presence of RPF and GRP personnel at railway station. “A lot of women commute by train for work. It is essential to safeguard them. I will also be asking for more CCTV cameras in all the railway stations,” she added.
K Baskar, a former member of the Divisional Rail Users Consultative Committee, said there was a need for an audit of CCTV cameras at all railway stations. “Many of them do not work. Besides, the cameras have been installed only in major stations. They should be fixed in all of them. Besides, a lot of people drink on suburban trains at night due to lack of police presence,” he said.
S Santhanam of the divisional rail users consultative committee said though Thursday’s incident was unexpected adequate police presence could have acted as a deterrent. “The poor police presence is why even college students roam around weilding sharp weapons,” he added.
The insufficient police presence at most railway presence also figured at Friday’s meeting of a high-level committee comprising the Southern Gailway general manager and other senior officials at the headquarters, when many of the Government Railway Police personnel vented their feelings, demanding more Railway Protection Force (RPF personnel. This, they said, would help at stations where there wasn’t scope to assign GRP personnel of the state force.
The GRP has set up smaller units and out-posts at important railway stations, with many personnel travelling by suburban trains and patrolling the platform even during the brief halt.
After the incident on August 24 when a woman police officer was attacked by a drunk man when she tried to prevent him from travelling in a ladies’ coach of a suburban train, additional director general of police S Vanitha, who is the director of the GRP, ordered a policewoman in all women’s coaches on suburban trains. She also instructed all women personnel to undergo martial arts training to be able to handle such situations and other emergencies.