Pregnant lady falls off berth in theft-foil bid

TT, Jan. 15: A pregnant woman fell from an upper berth of the Guwahati-Jhajha Express while trying to prevent three youths from snatching her bag as the train entered New Jalpaiguri station early this morning.

The youths escaped with the bag containing her laptop and jewellery worth Rs 1.3 lakh.

Nazima Begum, in her early 30s, was travelling with her husband Golam Mohiuddin to her in-laws' home in Birbhum's Suri. She teaches chemistry in an Assam college.

"As the train was entering NJP around 3.30am, I was jolted out of sleep by the screams of my wife. I saw three youths snatching my wife's rucksack from the upper bunk. She fell to the ground while trying to prevent the youths from taking her bag," Mohiuddin said.

According to him, their berths were next to the door and the youths might have entered as the train slowed down.

"Before we could react, the youths escaped with the bag," said Mohiuddin, a junior scientist at the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research at Mohali in Punjab.

"My wife is three months pregnant. An ultrasonography will be done tomorrow. A doctor has prescribed her medicines," he added.

Mohiuddin alleged that the government railway police at NJP refused to accept a written complaint, merely taking down the couple's names, phone numbers and the items snatched. The Suri GRP, he said, told him that they could not do anything because the incident had happened in the NJP GRP's area.

An officer of the NJP GRP said the only complaint recorded at the station today was the loss of a cellphone.