Vijayawada Railway Court Dismisses 2016 Train Burning Case

The Vijayawada Railway Court on Monday dismissed the 2016 train burning case that took place in East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. The court gave the reason for rejection that the three officers of Railway Protection Force (RPF) have failed to do adequate investigation in the case. The court also issued orders for initiating disciplinary action against the responsible officials. 

The investigating officers of the RPF had filed a chargesheet against 41 persons including Mudragada Padmanabham (A1), Akula Ramakrishna (A2) and Dadi Shetty Raja (A3) in the 2016 train burning case. Out of 24 witnesses, only 20 persons were examined by the RPF officers. The accused were present during the court proceedings. 

On January 31, 2016, a large number of people from the Kapu community had attended a public meeting under the banner “Kapu Garjana” at Tuni in East Godavari district. The then minister Mudragada Padmanabham had organised the meeting to press the demand for including Kapus in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

Later, the protests turned violent and the protestors started attacking public properties. They went to the Tuni railway station and set the Ratnachal Express which had halted at the railway station. After seeing the mob, the passengers jumped out of the train and escaped. Fortunately, there were no casualties in the train burning incident. However, a few railway employees were injured during the arson attack. The police acted swiftly and arrested Padmanabham and several Kapu agitators in the case. 

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