In the wake of the attack, the state home department today declared that police protection will be offered to suburban trains going to Karjat and Kasara after 7 pm daily.

On Tuesday night Gopalan was at the helm of a Kasara fast local which left Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus at 7.21 pm. When the train reached Khardi at around 9.45 pm, a group of men went up to him and asked him to make an unscheduled halt at Umar Mali, which has a railway cabin with a few villages in its vicinity.

But Gopalan refused to heed their demand, which led to a war of words between them. After their argument, Gopalan drove the train to Kasara as per schedulewithout halting at Umar Mali. This apparently incensed the five men who decided to take revenge on the non-cooperative driver.

When the train stopped at Kasara railway station at around 10.05 pm, the men jumped out and dragged the motorman out of his cabin. They then attacked him with lathis, stones and cycle chains, injuring him on his eyes, head and hands. By the end of the attack, Gopalan's right eye was hanging out and he bled from his head profusely.

After being taken to Igatpuri and then Kalyan, where Gopalan was refused admission due to the serious nature of his injuries, he was finally brought to Dr Ambedkar Railway Hospital, Byculla, at 6.30 am, over eight hours after the assault.

Doctors at the hospital said Gopalan was still critical, even after having undergone an emergency operation, and that he would be under observation for the next 48 hours in the Intensive Care Unit. Having lost his right eye, Gopalan also faces the probability of having damaged his left eye.

The 38-year-old driverstays at Kalyan with his wife Raji and son Ajay. A native of Kerala, Gopalan has been employed with Central Railway for the past 15 years. ``Why does the public take out their anger on motormen, who only operate the trains on the basis of signals?'' asked a distraught Raji who feared for her husband's life.

While motormen have traditionally borne everything from angry thumps on the partition that separates the luggage compartment from their cabin to abuses, this horrific assault is the first of its kind.

As news of the assault spread, motormen began assembling at major stations and declared a strike at around 8.30 am. They marched to the Divisional Railway Manager's S C Gupta office and demanded police protection, refusing to ply trains till it was provided.

The General Manager of CR K B Sankaran met Additional Chief Secretary V Ranganathan and arranged for state police patrol on railway stations. The newly-appointed Inspector General of Police (Railways) K Chaturvedi also gave instructions that allmotormen and guards would be given police protection.

Till late evening, the railway administration continued to hold meetings with the agitated motormen and railway police to take stock of the situation. Mukul Marwah, the chief spokesperson of CR, said that the railways would bear the cost of Gopalan's treatment.

Marwah also claimed that the railways would rehabilitate Gopalan, who is no longer fit for his job, in a suitable manner. ``We will see to it that his salary is protected,'' he added.

Meanwhile trains on CR were delayed by an average of over 30 minutes due to bunching at various spots. Over 110 services on the Main Line and 81 services on the Harbour Line were cancelled.