A policeman scuffles with a protester during the strike in Patna on Saturday. (AP)

Mumbai, Oct. 25: The Railway Protection Force in Mumbai has released CCTV footage, which it says bolsters its claim that Bihar resident Pawan Mahto was killed in an accident and not in attacks by Raj Thackeray’s men as his family has alleged.

However, Bihar authorities have not yet approached the railway police for clips of the footage captured by the closed-circuit television installed at Andheri railway station, officers said.

The Government Railway Police Force (GRP), Mumbai, however, was less sure than the RPF.

“We have released the footage to news channels hoping that it clears the air. It offers a fairly good view of the person who has died in the accident, but does not show how the accident happened,” GRP commissioner A.K. Sharma said.

Pawan, 25, the only son of a poor farmer in Nalanda, had come to Mumbai to appear for a railway recruitment exam. He was found dead on the tracks at Andheri station on October 19, hours after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists went on the rampage at 13 test centres in Mumbai to drive away north Indian candidates.

According to railway authorities, Pawan had tried to board a running train at 6.18am from platform No. 1 when he slipped and fell on the tracks. The CCTV on platform No. 2 captured the footage that shows the severely injured youth being taken to hospital. Pawan was declared dead in hospital.

Pawan’s father has lodged a murder complaint against the MNS chief in Bihar.

Bihar violence

The backlash against the MNS attacks on north Indians continued in Bihar with railway property bearing the brunt of students’ ire.

Activists of the All India Students’ Association, which had called a dawn-to-dusk bandh in the state, detached the engine of the Gaya-Kiul passenger train at Sheikhpura and smashed glass panes of a ticket counter in Darbhanga.