Bhubaneswar railway station (file picture)

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 14: Passengers waiting for trains at Bhubaneswar railway station were in for a shock as television sets installed on the platforms started showing a pornographic film this afternoon.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) later detained a 20-year-old youth, Ashutosh Swain, in connection with the incident. Police also seized his mobile phone, which contained pornographic clips.

Swain is employed with a private organisation that manages and operates the closed-circuit television cameras and television sets installed at the railway station.

The RPF officials said that around 3pm a pornographic film started showing on the television sets, including those installed in the waiting hall.

The RPF officials rushed to stop the transmission as the embarrassed passengers brought the matter to their notice.

However, by the time the transmission stopped, the film had run for more than 10 minutes, said Varun Behera, inspector in charge of RPF police station, Bhubaneswar.

Swain, who hails from Salepur in Cuttack, is doing his graduation from a college at Jagatpur. Four months ago, he had been appointed by a Cuttack-based company to manage television transmission at the railway station.

The RPF said the blooper occurred because Swain had inserted his mobile memory chip into the computer that regulated the transmission.

“During enquiry the boy admitted that he had done it. However, Swain said he had done it unknowingly as he was trying to scan his mobile memory chips. But, the boy has been working here for several months and knows all these things. He must have done it knowingly,” said Behera.

Swain, however, said he was unaware of the transmission as the blue film screen was minimised on the desktop. “I had inserted it for scanning. But, unknowingly it got transmitted as the screen was minimised. There was no other television installed in the transmission hall for which I could not know about it,” said the accused.

The station master has given a report to the RPF to take action against the accused. The RPF officials said they would hand him over to the Government Railway Police (GRP), Bhubaneswar, who would forward him to court.

“We will also have a talk with the GRP officials and hand him over to them. Else, we will forward him to court booking him under Section 145 of the Railway Act that deals with obscene acts,” said Behera.