RPF jawans assault CPI men, party calls rail roko in protest

Bhubaneswar, Sep 16 (UNI) Protesting the assault of party leaders and workers by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel at Bhubaneswar Railway station yesterday, the CPI today called for a statewide rail roko agitation.

CPI state secretary D K Panda in a statement here said the party had resolved to resort to rail roko agitation demanding suspension of the RPF jawans and the TTE involved in assaulting the CPI state secretary Dibakar Nayak and others.

Mr Panda said though the CPI leaders had identified the RPF jawans and the TTE during a test identification parade, no action was taken against the guilty.

He alleged CPI state assistant secretary Ashis Kanungo and other leaders, waiting at the Bhubaneswar railway station to receive Mr Nayak, were also beaten up by the RPF personnel when they protested the action against their leader and other party workers.

Condemning the attack on the party leaders, the CPI had urged the people of Orissa to extend their all support to the rail roko agitation tomorrow.

Party sources said Mr Nayak was first assaulted by one TTE during an altercation on his arrival from Bolangir in Inter City Express last night. The RPF personnel, on the basis of a complaint lodged by the TTE, soon arrived at the spot and started assaulting Mr Nayak and his other party workers.

This led to a chaos at the station and the party workers squatted on disrupting the movement of trains for two hours.

They later withdrew the agitation after the city police arrived and conducted the TI parade to identify the RPF jawans involved in the incident.

UNI