Sarkar (left) at New Cooch Behar station. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, May 26: The inspector-general of railways today assured railway employees that action would be taken against the men in khaki who had run amok at New Cooch Behar station on May 19.

A.K. Sarkar, the IG, arrived at the railway station around 1pm. He talked to station manager Monomohan Das, who had been beaten up by the policemen on their way back from Cooch Behar after election duty. When the rake supposed to take them back to Howrah, their place of posting, arrived nine hours late, the law enforcers had turned lawless, smashing doors and windowpanes and assaulting railway employees.

A similar act was repeated the next day by the same batch of policemen at Eklakhi in Malda. This time they had demanded that their rake be allowed to leave the platform before two trains that were on schedule passed.

“Both legal and departmental inquiries will be conducted,” said Sarkar. He was accompanied by the superintendent of police of Cooch Behar, Anil Kumar, and the superintendent of railway police (Siliguri) M.S. Punia.

Das, who had to be hospitalised after he was beaten up, said he was ready to go anywhere to attend a test identification parade to point out the culprits.

The station master had suffered a stroke six months ago. Assistant station master Niranjan Barman had also suffered injuries. Das had lodged a complaint against the rampaging policemen. Two of them, Somen Bahadur and Somnath, identified by the name on their breastplates, had been mentioned in the FIR with the GRP.

Sarkar talked to the vendors outside the station, who had also been beaten up by the rampaging policemen.

The rioting by gun wielding policemen at New Cooch Behar station had continued for more than four hours. Trains were delayed and several passengers had to stand for hours outside the station premises, waiting for the situation to return to normal.