Huge crowds were witnessed at Mumbai stations following the protests in Badlapur. Pic/Sameer Abedi and Atul Kamble
Protesters, including several women, came on railway tracks and blocked traffic, local train services between Ambernath and Karjat stations were suspended from 10:10 am
The protest turned violent as agitators vandalised the school, where the alleged incident occurred last week, and also indulged in stone-pelting at the Badlapur railway station, police said
At least 10 mail-express trains, including Solapur-CSMT Vande Bharat Express, were diverted via Karjat-Panvel-Thane stations, said Swapnil Nila, chief public relations officer (CRPO) of Central Railway
He said local trains between CSMT and Ambarnath stations are running normally; services between Badlapur and Karjat remain suspended.
In view of the protest, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) deployed additional personnel at stations on the Kalyan-Karjat section of Central Railway, Nila said
Senior Divisional Security Manager along with 60 jawans and 10 officials of RPF, are closely monitoring the situation at Badlapur station with the Government Railway Police (GRP) staff
Meanwhile, the police lathi-charged protesters at Badlapur railway station near Mumbai on Tuesday evening to break up the day-long rail roko agitation against the alleged sexual abuse of two girls at a kindergarten
Police used force to disperse hundreds of protesters at around 6 PM, hours after they hurled stones at the railway station while rejecting pleas of the state government and senior police officers to call off the agitation, which affected the services of local trains and forced diversion of some outstation trains, an official said
The local train traffic remained affected for several hours on a Central Railway section in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region as demonstrators, including many women, stayed put on tracks throughout the day. They demanded capital punishment for the arrested attendant of the school
The tracks at Badlpaur station were finally cleared of demonstrators after 6 pm, the police official said
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