KOLKATA/CHITTARANJAN: A Gorkha Rifles jawan travelling on a train did not hesitate to take on a gang of 30 armed dacoits singlehandedly, armed with just a khukri, when he saw them looting his fellow passengers. A GRP escort team posted on the train reportedly did nothing to stop the robbers on Maurya Express late on Thursday.
Nearly 30 armed dacoits looted cash and valuables worth `10 lakh from
passengers of Maurya Express between Kulti and Chittaranjan stations
along the West Bengal-Jharkhand border on Thursday night.
The
armed dacoits refused to mess with Vishnu Shresta when they came to know
that he is a soldier, but the 45-year-old Gorkha Rifles jawan would not
sit back and watch his fellow passengers being manhandled and looted.
The fearless Gurkha pulled out his khukri and fell upon the dacoits till he was overpowered. After a hurried shot
fired at him went astray, they used the same khukri to slash Shresta's
wrist.
Shresta is posted at Ranchi and was proceeding on leave to Pokhra in Nepal.
He boarded the Hatia-Gorakhpur Jn Maurya Express from Ranchi on
Thursday evening. When the raid took place, he was fast asleep on his
berth.
"Suddenly, there were shouts and the sound of running
feet," Shresta recounted from his bed at Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in
Chittaranjan. "Somebody pulled at my bedclothes. I sat up and found a
number of people standing near my feet. They demanded that I hand over
all my cash and valuables. There was confusion all around and I shouted
that I am an Indian Army jawan. The criminals backed off and turned
their attention to a woman and her child, who were on a berth close by,"
Shresta added.
He lost his cool when he saw a miscreant trying
to pull out the girl, about 8 years old, from the berth and snatch a
necklace from her mother.
"I am a soldier and get paid to
protect citizens of this country. I could not sit back and watch as
passengers were looted. I pulled out my khukri and attacked the
criminals. Initially, they were taken by surprise and I succeeded in
connecting with at least three of them. The blows were severe and they
must have got themselves admitted to some hospital. By then, the
criminals started fighting back. They fired a shot that missed me. At
one point of time, the khukri fell from my hand and I was overpowered.
They picked it up and used it on me," the jawan said.
After
Shresta slumped to the ground, profusely bleeding from his wound, all
fight went out from the other passengers. None of them dared to make eye
contact with the criminals and did their bidding.
According to
authorities, members of the gang were travelling on the train posing as
passengers. Around 11.25pm, about 10 minutes after the train left Kulti
station, the criminals detached the vacuum hose between two coaches.
This brought the train to a stop. While some dacoits entered S1, S2 and
S3 coaches, others smashed the windows of the A1 and B1 air-conditioned
compartments to gain entry.
"The miscreants were shouting in
Hindi. When they asked us to hand over all our valuables, I gave them my
purse and cellphone," said Nilu Verma, who was on her way to Lakhisarai
from Katras. Ajay Srivastava was walking back to his berth from the
toilet when he was accosted by the criminals. "One of them snatched my
cellphone and asked me to hand over my wallet. As I took some time to
react, he slapped me and snatched my belongings," said Srivastava, who
was going to Muzaffarpur.
Anita Modi, on her way to Barauni,
felt that the 15-20 minutes of terror would never come to an end.
"Passengers were beaten up and abused. Even women were not spared.
People were screaming but nobody came to our assistance. When the train
reached Chittaranjan, we were feeling ill," she said.
Shresta
said the criminals were in the late thirties and carrying various types
of weapons, including guns, daggers and tangis. Strangely, railway staff
on the train said they were not aware that passengers had been robbed
till they reached Chittaranjan. "We shall discuss with the RPF and GRP
on how to provide security on night trains in this stretch," said G C
Roy, senior divisional commercial manager of Asansol.
Police
succeeded in arresting six of the criminals and recovered a part of the
booty later. A manhunt has been launched for the others. Asansol
divisional railway manager Jagadanand Jha claimed that there was a GRP
escort on the train, but the personnel did little to prevent the crime.
typical blackies behaviour
need a nepalese to come to the rescue
in the end gurkha ended up crippled.when do they learn they cant run anywhere with a knife.....u wanna take them down....use a few hand grenades,...thats a true soldier.
gurkha is a dummy.not only didnt he do his job as a soldier...he failed n became a cripple with slashed wrist with his very ow knife even!
stupid strategy for a soldier.....he cant protect himself ...then he cant protect shit even
!
and....what will happen to him if his elite unit found he was badly injured?he would be discharged!
and what if they found he was there doing nothing???longkang job for him.
if he wants to fight...make sure he kills all....and wins it.....i dun expect the fight to be over either after he gets out of the hospital.
so the moral of the story is to always carry a loaded gpmg with you if you are a soldier