Bhubaneswar: A woman on Wednesday tweeted chief minister Naveen Patnaik's office and also Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek justice for her elder sister, who was allegedly molested in the Janshatabdi Express on her way from Cuttack to Bengal's Kharagpur last Sunday.

The woman alleged that even the train ticket examiner (TTE) did not come to the rescue of her sister - an LLM student at IIT-Kharagpur - when she raised an alarm.

Though the woman had first tweeted about the incident to the rail ministry on March 26, the issue went viral after the complaint reached the doors of the CMO.

The railways ministry has sought details of the passenger and the incident from the complainant on Twitter and initiated a probe. However, the CMO had not responded till Wednesday evening.

The woman told The Telegraph: "I boarded the train from Cuttack on Sunday morning and the passenger sitting beside me started touching me inappropriately. The incident took place between Bhadrak and Balasore station. When I raised an alarm, the man fled from the compartment. I also informed the matter to the TTE. But instead of taking action against the accused, he changed my seat and assured me that he would ensure that such harassment did not recur till the end of my journey."

She later narrated her ordeal to her younger sister who took to Twitter to seek justice. "It's my request to all the railway departments to kindly take strict action. If a law student is not getting any protection in trains, what will be the condition of the common people?" she said.

"Girls are not feeling safe in trains with such kind of incidents taking place frequently. The role of the TTE was a major embarrassment for me as he did not try to bring the molester to book and instead changed my seat," she said.

The Khurda Road Division of East Coast Railway has started an inquiry into the issue. "We are investigating the matter and appropriate action would be taken if our staff is found guilty," said additional divisional railway manager S.P. Dwivedi.

In March last year, a 49-year-old man was arrested for allegedly molesting a 19-year-old Delhi University student on Rajdhani Express.

The railways had swung into action after the victim, a resident of Bhubaneswar, shared her ordeal with the public on Facebook post.

Train timing

The East Coast Railway has revised the timing of Bhubaneswar-Balangir Inter City Express from April 15 for operational reasons. The train will leave Bhubaneswar at 6.30am instead of 6.45am and will reach Balangir at 1.25pm.