440 held in drive on trains

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested 440 railway passengers on various charges, including dangerous travelling on the footboard of coaches, as part of its three-day combing operations that ended on Monday. K J Joy, Commissioner, RPF, ordered the operation. The Railway Magistrate, Kollam, heard the detained passengers at a special sitting at Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station on Tuesday. He sentenced a resident of Palakkad to one month of simple imprisonment on the charge of disobeying the lawful directions of railway staff and obstructing them from discharging their duties. The court found the accused to have been drunk at the time of the offence. The magistrate slapped fines ranging from Rs 400 to Rs1,000 for various offences, including dangerous travel, pestering other passengers, consuming alcohol, and travelling in an inebriated state. The RPF had conducted the combing operations on trains traversing between Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur.