RPF Saved 495 Lives, Seized 1.5 Lakh Tickets Worth 73 Crores Booked by Touts in 2019

The Railway Board has released the Annual Performance Report for the calendar year 2019. The report has quite a few interesting snippets. RailPost brings you highlights of the report.

Touting

The RPF has made a huge seizure of tickets booked by touts and those using fake IDs. This was named Operation Thunder.  A total of 363 persons have been arrested in 378 cases. Close to 40000 tickets have been seized – both from past journeys and those booked in advance. The value of these tickets is about Rs.7.7 crores, and the 4355 IDs used to book these tickets are blocked.

Outside of Operation Thunder also, large seizures have been made. A total of 4235 persons have been arrested under 3819 cases. More than 1.5 lakh tickets representing both past and future journeys have been seized, amounting to a total of around Rs.73 crores in value, with more than 17000 IDs blocked.

Lost Luggage

RPF have retrieved over 13000 pieces of luggage left behind by passengers, valued at approximately Rs.48 crores. The top performers in left luggage retrieval (by numbers) are Southern Railway with 2423 retrievals valued at Rs2.98 crores; South Central Railway with 1704 retrievals valued at Rs.3.35 crores; and Western Railway with 1386 retrievals valued at Rs. 3.14 crores.

Life-Saving

RPF have been at the forefront of saving human lives from impending accidents like runovers, falling between the platform and the moving train, etc.

An outstanding example is the ultimate sacrifice of Jagbir Singh Rana, Constable in the Delhi Division of NR. HE lost his life saving a woman and three children coming under the wheels of a train when posted between Adarsh Nagar and Azadpur. In Western Railway, RPJ Jawan Shiv Charan Gurjar saved 9 people trapped in floods.

Following these shining examples, the force has saved a total of 495 lives across the country.

Child Rescue

RPF have also rescued children from various dangers and handed them over to their near and dear or to child care centres. Most importantly, 446 children have been saved from child traffickers and 68 arrests made. Apart from this, over 16000 children have been rescued – these cover runaway kids, destitute, kidnapped, left behind, missing, mentally ill, etc.

Seizure under NDPS Act

RPF were empowered only in April 2019 to make seizures and arrests under the Narcotics,  Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. For the April to December period, RPF have arrested 427 traffickers under 490 cases while seizing drugs worth about Rs.13 crore in the market.

Other Highlights of 2019

    
Illegal wildlife trade39 casesRs, 53 lakhs seizure value36 cases
Alarm Chain Pulling 46223 trains55373 incidents45784 persons arrested43951 persons prosecuted
Anti-encroachment1102 drives4937 locations freed from encroachment 
Coal theft247 cases registered; 246 detectedRs.23 lakhs approximately stolen; Rs.10 lakhs approximately recovered444 persons arrested
Petroleum theft14 cases registered; 12 detectedRs.6 lakhs approximately stolen; Rs.4 lakhs approximately recovered56 persons arrested
Booked Consignment and Railway Material3756 cases registered; 3085 detectedRs.11.2 crores approximately stolen; Rs.4.50 crores approximately recovered5276 persons arrested
    
IPC Cases DetectionDetectedArrested 
Drugging7074 
Luggage lifting23352639 
Illegal arms95104 
Chain snatching / pick pocketing12101366 
Offences against women9494 
Other offences12261625 

RPF Helpline

Toll-Free number 182 has handled more than 60000 complaints during the year, besides handling about 32000 complaints received via Twitter.

Ticket Checking

As far as ticket checking drives are concerned, RPF have conducted or assisted in over 1.5 lakh drives, deploying about 1.20 lakh personnel. More than 5 lakh offenders have been booked and an amount of approximately Rs.215.65 crores realized as fare and penalty.

Stone Pelting

A total of 1138 cases of stone-pelting have been reported with 659 cases registered and 404 persons arrested.

Women’s Security

Special drives launched for women’s security included drives to prevent men travelling in women’s compartments. About 6000 cases have been registered, with about 7000 persons arrested and about Rs,7 lakh realized in penalty.

Divyaang Security

A total of 4788 cases have been registered against 5674 persons travelling in Divyaang coaches. About Rs.5 lakhs has been collected as a penalty.

Operation Thirst – conducted in July 2019  when 1430 persons were apprehended for sale of unauthorized packaged drinking water and 69000 bottles of water were recovered.

Operation Number Plate – conducted August where 69 vehicles involved in crime were recovered from railway parking lots and handed over to Police.

Operation Hunt detected unauthorized goods and persons travelling in Rajdhani Expresses.

Operation Box detected leaseholders of SLR transporting illegal goods. Totally 898 SLRs were checked and contraband worth approximately Rs.90 lakhs was seized. A penalty of Rs. 2.68 lakhs was also levied.

Group A cadre in RPF is named as Indian Railway Protection Force Service. The nomenclature of Group ‘A’ gazetted cadre of RPF as IRPFS does not, in any way, change the name of the force (RPF). The character of the force constituted under RPF (Amendment) Act 1985 (an Act of Parliament) as a statutory Armed Force of the Union remains unchanged.

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