Government Railway Police (GRP) acted with alacrity to arrest BJP MLC Tunnaji Pandey when a 12-year-old girl alleged he had sexually assaulted her onboard the Howrah-Gorakhpur Purvanchal Express on Sunday, but the same force has been dragging its feet in a similar case against suspended JDU MLA from Jokihat, Sarfraz Alam.

The GRP have not yet submitted a chargesheet against Sarfraz, a three-term legislator and son of former Union minister Mohammad Taslimuddin, six months after the ruling party MLA was accused of molesting a woman passenger on the Dibrugarh-Delhi Rajdhani Express on January 17 this year. The FIR was lodged with the Patna GRP the next day, and the police headquarters had announced that the case would be listed for speedy trial.

"The investigating is going on at snail's pace for obvious reasons," said an officer who did not want to be identified for obvious reasons.

The officer alleged the investigation was being deliberately delayed on the pretext of collecting more evidence.

The investigating officer, sub-inspector Rekha Kumari, didn't bother to record the statement of the complainant, a resident of Delhi, highly placed sources said.

Patna superintendent of rail police Jitendra Mishra, however, claimed the investigation will be completed at the earliest and the chargesheet will be submitted in court.

"Once the chargesheet is filed against the accused, the investigating officer would request the court to conduct a speedy trial," he added.

Mishra didn't give any timeframe for filing the chargesheet in court.

"I reviewed the progress in the investigation of the much highlighted case soon after I assumed charge in April this year. My predecessor (P.N. Mishra) had issued certain guidelines to the investigating officer," he said.

Mishra wrote a letter to Patna GRP station house officer Pramod Kumar recently, asking him to ensure the probe was conducted properly.

"We will take the case to a logical conclusion," Mishra told The Telegraph over phone on Monday.

A source in the GRP said the woman wrote to the Bihar police chief saying she didn't want to pursue the case as the family feared for their lives. Sarfraz, considered a bahubali (strongman) in the Kosi region, is out on bail.