Darjeeling woman jumps off train to escape rape bid

PATNA/ARA: A woman was injured after she jumped off a running train to escape an alleged rape attempt by an Army jawan in Bihar on Thursday afternoon. Police said the assault happened in the Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail near Ara, 50km from Patna. The Darjeeling-based woman, in her thirties, had boarded the train at New Jalpaiguri and she was going to Delhi. 

The Armyman, identified by cops as Rakesh Kumar, was captured by co-passenger A D Upadhyaya, an Assam Rifles jawan, and handed over to police at Buxar, 60km from Ara. Bhojpur DM Pratima S Verma said the woman suffered injuries in her head and legs. She was admitted to a hospital in Ara, the district headquarters of Bhojpur. Her condition is stable, the DM said. Bhojpur SP M R Naik told TOI in Ara that the woman, a mother of 13-year-old twins, was travelling alone in the AC-III coach of the train. 

She told police that her attacker tried to outrage her modesty when she had gone to the toilet after the train left Ara station. She struggled hard to come out of his clutches and in the process jumped off the train when it slowed down near Jagjiwan Halt, near Ara. Danapur divisional railway manager L M Jha said the woman would be shifted to Patna soon.