The Incident
Tushar Thakur, a 23-year-old army aspirant from Jammu, wanted to use the restroom when traveling on the outskirts of the city near the Ludhiana railway station when he encountered three smoking men. Upon asking them to stop smoking, he was thrown out of the moving train. He was found with a broken spinal cord on May 19. He could not confirm the exact location of the incident to the Police.
What were the medical complications faced by Tushar?
Tushar underwent several surgeries to fix his dislocated hip and plastic surgery for his broken jaw. He also has pipes down his nose and throat for oxygen and food supply. Now that his lungs and ribs were getting stronger, he needed to undergo spinal surgery to make his upper body functional. Ludhiana’s Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) doctors suggested not performing the surgery because it is life-threatening.
According to the doctors, he might not be able to walk even after the surgery. Tushar's parents are consulting the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, and All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, for some miracle.
What action was taken by the Government Railway Police?
Even after 2 months, the Government Railway Police (GRP) failed to capture and arrest those responsible for Tushar's condition. Although this incident occurred on May 19th, the GRP Ludhiana cops made an FIR only on June 24th. This was able to happen only because of the consistent efforts of Tushar's parents who had made multiple appeals running from pillar to post demanding an investigation into their son's tragic condition.
The FIR was registered only after Tushar was conscious. Unable to even sit due to his spine injury, Tushar typed an application while lying down in the hospital bed and sent it over to the police.
When enquired about why the FIR was registered so late by the Government Railway Police (GRP), the Station House Officer (SHO) Jatinder Singh stated, “The boy was not in a condition to give statement without which we couldn’t have filed a complaint. We tried getting his statement but doctors said he was not fit for it yet.”
We are trying to get CCTV footage from different stations to find out who those boys were. But since the Jammu youth lost his ticket in the train, we don’t know which bogie he was travelling in
Jatinder Singh, Station House Officer (SHO), GRP
A case was registered against the 3 unidentified suspects under sections 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
Financial expenses so far
Tushar's father has already spent over 8 lakhs on his son's treatment within a month at DMCH. If the son will have to undergo spinal surgery, 10 lakhs more will be required. The father lamented that no one from the railways had visited his son so far.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Gayatri Prakasan/MSM)
