Indore : Growing incidents of misbehavior with passengers by auto-drivers inside the platform turned worse on Saturday when one auto-driver forced a passenger to hire his auto.
After the ugly incident, the Railway Protection Force (RTF) detained 19 riders and produced three of them before the railway magistrate, who released them later after imposing fine.
Misbehaviour and teasing of passengers by local auto-rickshaw drivers are very common at city platforms. Most of time, pasnegers try to avoid such things.
On Saturday, one passenger (Malhar Deodhare) alighted from Pune-Indore Express at 8.30 am. Despite his denial of hiring auto, an auto-driver tried to force him to hire his auto and he even tried to snatch Deodhare’s belongings. Irked over his behaviour, Deodhare rushed to office of Area Manager to lodge a complaint. But he was advised to file his complaint in the complaint book.
Deodhare also lodged his complaint with senior officials of the railways.
Taking a serious note, the RPF swung into action. JR Yadav, IT RPF, said that he along with RPF jawans conducted a drive and detained errant auto-drivers, who were moving illegally inside the platforms.
In all 19 auto-riders were detained by them from platform no. 1, 2, 3, 4 and also from boot over bridges. Yadav said that they had identified the abusers through CCTV footage and produced 3 of them before the railway magistrate. The Magistrate imposed fine on them before their release. Later, some auto riders even tried to protest the action of RPF at platform no. 1.