Vijayawada: 6 held for stone pelting at Vande Bharat Express

Vijayawada (NTR district): The Railway Protection Force at Rajahmundry have arrested six persons (including three juveniles) for stone pelting at Vande Bharat Express on April 28 between Samalkot–Pithapuram stations. Due to the stone pelting, the Vande Bharat Express was rescheduled for four hours due to maintenance/repair activity at Visakhapatnam depot on April 29, causing severe inconvenience to the passengers and affecting train punctuality.

The divisional RPF Control received information at 7.23 hrs on April 28 from on-duty train escort RPF staff K Srinivasa Rao regarding stone pelting incident that resulted in window pane breakage with no injury to the passengers onboard.

RPF Rajahmundry and Samalkot post swung into action and enquired at suspected locations. They have also enquired in the nearby villages Kapavaram, Chandrapalem, Samalkot local people and farmers, but no fruitful information was obtained. They contacted the Maintenance Depot at Visakhapatnam and retrieved onboard CCTV footage.

The RPF with the help of State police retrieved the CCTV footage of the approach road and traced the six youth. The RPF found one suspect, who admitted of the wrongdoing. The remaining five people were also traced. Surprisingly three of them were juveniles - below 18 years of age.

All the six were booked under Section 153 of Railways Act. Three persons aged above 18 years were presented before the Railway Court, Vijayawada and they were remanded up to May 16. While the three juveniles were produced before the Juvenile Court at Rajahmundry and sent to juvenile home for further action.

Senior DSC Valleswara Babuji Thokala congratulated B Saidaiah and his team for cracking the case and apprehending the perpetrators for stone pelting.