Rourkela: A railway employee was arrested on Thursday for allegedly raping a woman passenger from Nuapada district on Rourkela railway station premises after luring her with the promise of arranging a confirmed train ticket to Bengaluru. The accused, posted at Rourkela station, was taken into custody by the Government Railway Police (GRP) and later remanded to judicial custody.According to police, the woman and her two cousins were travelling to Bengaluru for work. The trio initially boarded the wrong train at Titlagarh on Wednesday and reached Hatia. After realising their mistake, they boarded another train to Rourkela and arrived around 9 am on Thursday.As they did not have confirmed tickets for the onward journey to Bengaluru, the woman’s cousins went to inquire about reservations while she stayed back on the platform. Police said the railway employee approached her, offered to help arrange a confirmed ticket and took her to an operator room near the officers’ rest house on platform no. 1.He allegedly locked the room from inside and raped her. Investigators said he later offered her Rs 2,000 and warned her against disclosing the incident. When he allegedly attempted to assault her again, the woman managed to escape and inform her cousins.The trio immediately approached the GRP and lodged a complaint. A police team led by sub-inspector Kailash Munda rushed to the room and detained the man. Both the accused and the survivor underwent medical examination. The survivor has been accommodated at a One Stop Centre, and her statement will be recorded before a magistrate, police said.Following the arrest, railway authorities terminated the man’s services. Aditya Choudhury, senior divisional commercial manager of Chakradharpur division, said the employee had been removed from service without pensionary benefits.
