Patna: A judicial officer had to bear the brunt of unauthorised passengers travelling in a train on the Patna-Gaya section under East Central Railway's Danapur railway division.

A group of unauthorised passengers attacked Prashant Kumar Jha, additional chief judicial magistrate of Pupri in Sitamarhi district, on a passenger train near Banavar Halt between Bela and Makhdumpur railway stations on Tuesday night.

The passengers attacked Jha when he resisted their attempt to forcibly occupy a berth on the train and snatched his cellphone. Injury marks on the judicial officer's body bore testimony to the physical harassment caused to the bona fide passenger.

The incident took place when Jha was on his way from Gaya to Patna from where he was supposed to leave for Pupri in Sitamarhi. Jha alighted from the train and narrated his ordeal woes to the officials manning Jehanabad government railway police station. He told the officials that the attackers also made an abortive attempt to drag him from the train with an intention to eliminate him. However, he was saved due to intervention by some fellow passengers, an investigating officer quoted Jha as saying.

The officer said the ACJM was taken to the local circuit house where the police recorded his statement and lodged a complaint against unidentified persons for assaulting him on the running train.

Patna superintendent of rail police (SRP) Ashok Kumar Singh said two of the accused, identified as Shashank Dev and Suraj Kumar, residents of Barhambarhi and Sonma villages under the jurisdiction of Makdumpur police station in Jehanabad district, have already been arrested.

The SRP said both the accused were produced in the railway court, which remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days. The duo have been booked on the charge of wrongful restraint, loot, attempt to murder and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace under Sections 147, 148, 149, 341, 323, 307, 379 and 504 of IPC.

He stated that the investigating officer of the case had been directed to collect evidences to get them prosecuted for the offence.

Additional director general (rail) Alok Raj also inquired about the incident and told the investigating officials to conduct proper investigation.