Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel picked up four imposters posing as eunuchs and harassing passengers in an air-conditioned coach of 13021 Mithila Express at Bapudham Motihari station on Sunday night.

"Following repeated complaints of passengers against such imposters, the RPF launched a drive against them around a week ago. We found no valid journey papers from the imposters or any reason behind their taking shelter on the platform. We took them in judicial custody from platform number 2 of the station," said RPF inspector P.K. Barnwal.

The imposters posing as eunuchs were identified as Jiut Kumar, Satya Narain Paswan, Jokhan Prasad hailing from different places in West Champaran and Bhikhari Sah of Sewaipatti in Muzaffarpur district. "They were charged under sections 144 and 145 of the Railway Act and produced in front of a magistrate in Bettiah on Monday. The sections pertain to begging and creating nuisance or act of indecency or uses abusive or obscene language on a railway carriage or at a railway station. Each was fined Rs 2,500 and made to sign on an undertaking," Barnwal said.

"After gathering necessary inputs regarding passengers' inconvenience on trains by imposter eunuchs and others, we had launched the special drive to improve the situation," said the inspector.

According to sources, several such complaints were even earlier lodged by a number of passengers such as Mohan Kumar Sinha, Vijay Singh, Sujeet Kumar, Vinod Pandey and Rakesh Shukla but no effective action was taken.

"Such imposters often harass passengers on long-distance running trains mainly between Mehsi and Valmikinagar stations. They are often spotted loitering from one end of the platform to the other and waiting for a suitable time to prey on gullible passengers," Barnwal said.