Four accused arrested for throwing 2 RPF jawans off moving train in UP's Ghazipur

Lucknow, Aug 27 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force (STF) has arrested four people who allegedly pushed two RPF constables off a moving train to death over liquor smuggling, officials said.

The incident had taken place in the intervening night of August 19 and 20, when the four miscreants assaulted Railway Protection Force (RPF) constables Javed Khan and Pramod Kumar in the Barmer-Guwahati Express train in Ghazipur and threw them off the moving train. Both the RPF jawans died, the STF officials said here on Tuesday.

The STF arrested four accused Pankaj Kumar, Premchand Verma, Vinay Kumar and Vilendra Pasi in Varanasi on Monday. All four are residents of Bihar, the officials said.

A government pistol, seven cartridges, the wallet of deceased jawan Javed and a car have been recovered from their possession, they said.

During the probe after death of RPF personnel, the STF got information about the involvement of Bihar's liquor smuggling gang in the incident. Pankaj Kumar, Premchand Verma, Vinay Kumar and Vilendra Pasi were brought to the STF's Varanasi office for interrogation and were later arrested, they said.

During interrogation, the accused confessed that they work as a gang and on August 19, they had gone to Alinagar in Mughal Sarai in Chandauli to get liquor for smuggling. After buying liquor from a person named Surendra there, they came to the railway station and boarded the general compartment of the Barmer-Guwahati Express train.

RPF constables Javed and Pramod reached the spot when chain pulling took place before Kuchaman station. When the constables opposed chain pulling and came to know about the liquor smuggling, the accused thrashed them and pushed them out of the moving train, due to which they died, they said.

Premchand said he has been jailed in the past on charges of murder and liquor smuggling. Two cases are already registered against him and co-accused Vinay, the STF said.

A detailed probe is underway in the matter. PTI ABN ABN KSS KSS