Mumbai: Man Threatens Suicide, Stops Western Railway Services For an Hour at Boisar

Shaikh's wife says he was having an extra-marital affair.

Mumbai: Western Railway services were hit for an hour when a 23-year-old man climbed on to the railing of a foot over bridge (FOB) at Boisar, threatening to end his life.

Local and outstation trains headed towards Ahmedabad had to be stopped till Mohammad Shaikh was convinced to climb back down. The man, a plumber by profession, was rescued after commuters, police and firemen trying to dissuade him from touching high tension overhead wires.

At a little after 9 AM, office-goers at Boisar station spotted Shaikh standing on the railing with a knife in his hand. Dressed in jeans and a shirt, he threatened to touch the 25,000-kilowatt wire. A daily quoted Dahanu’s RPF inspector Basant Rai as saying, “Shaikh did not know he was dangerously close to the overhead equipment. As he tried to touch the wires, we decided to shut down the power supply. Boisar MIDC firemen were called in to rescue him.”

Social activist Umakant Bharati, who was among the commuters, got talking to Shaikh and got his story out.

Shaikh claimed he wanted to commit suicide due to harassment by his father-in-law and brother-in-law. Later, he was produced before Vasai railway court where he admitted his mistake and said he had acted out of anger. The judge punished him till the rising of the court.

Shaikh hails from Samastipur in Bihar. He was married and his wife had delivered a baby recently. His wife, who reached the station, told the RPF that he was involved in an extra-marital relationship and she had filed a case against him with Boisar’s MIDC police.

His wife told RPF that her father and brother had pulled him up over the issue on Sunday. Shaikh was booked under Railway Act’s sections 147 for unlawful entry at a station, 145B for nuisance, 156 for travelling on a train’s rooftop, step or engine, and 174C for tampering.