Held For Illegal Hawking, Clarifies Railways After Reports Emerge on Train Hawker Held For Mimicking Leaders

In view of some media reports saying that Dubey was arrested from Surat railway station for mimicking politicians while carrying out his sales, the Ministry of Railways today tweeted a clarification.

New Delhi: Two days after one train hawker named Avdhesh Dubey was arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) after his video of selling toys in the train while mimicking various politicians went viral, the Ministry of Railways today issued a clarification.

After apprehending him on Friday, the RPF had said, “He was apprehended during unauthorize vending in train no 17204 sleeper coach at Surat Railway station.”

pic.twitter.com/0jGEUYm2hg

— kingshuksen (@kingshuk_sen) June 1, 2019

In view of some media reports saying that Dubey was arrested from Surat railway station for mimicking politicians while carrying out his sales, the Ministry of Railways today tweeted a clarification that read:

Clarification on a news item, carried out on different media forums, regarding an arrest of a train hawker in Gujarat. pic.twitter.com/ujb8i7zqGu

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) June 2, 2019

It illustrated that Dubey was held on charges of illegal hawking and not as various media houses reported over his way of selling or mimicking anyone.

The RPF filed an FIR against him under several sections of Railway Act, including section 44 (prohibition on hawking and begging), 145 B (spreading nuisance or using abusive language in railway carriage), 147 (unlawful entry into train), among others.

According to sources, Avdhesh Dubey is a native of Varanasi and had migrated to Valsad two years ago. He has since been selling toys to train passengers travelling between Vapi and Surat.