A video of an elderly man purportedly being attacked over suspicion that he was carrying beef was widely shared on social media on Saturday, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the railways will not stop till it becomes a guarantee of comfortable travel for all sections of society.
As he spoke on comfortable travel, the video surfaced online where some people were seen assaulting and verbally abusing a feeble, elderly man inside an express train in Igatpuri, in Mahasrashtra’s Nashik district.
The prime minister’s remarks on comfortable travel came during the virtual flag-off ceremony of three Vande Bharat Express trains.
“We will not stop until Indian Railways becomes a guarantee of comfortable travel for everyone,” said Modi.
While the video of the assault over ‘beef’ suspicion is part of an alarming trend of bigotry that critics say has been a feature of Modi’s tenures as PM, it definitely underlines lack of security in trains and can thus be considered as contrary to Modi’s vow of comfortable travel.
According to the Government Railway Police quoted by news agency PTI, the victim in the video, Haji Ashraf Munyar, a resident of Jalgaon district, was travelling to his daughter's house in Kalyan near Mumbai when he was beaten up by his co-passengers near Igatpuri on suspicion that he was carrying beef.
The GRP have initiated a probe into the incident, which apparently occurred last week.
"We have taken cognisance of the video and identified the victim. Some of the people involved
in the attack have also been identified and a probe is on," PTI quoted a GRP official as saying on Saturday, adding that no case has been registered so far.
Both train accidents and attacks by cow vigilante groups have become common in the past few months in India. On Friday, a 23-year-old migrant worker from Bengal was lynched in Haryana by a suspected cow vigilante group. And at least seven railway accidents have occurred in 2024 already.