In a bizarre incident,a monkey reportedly got into the drivers cabin of a railway engine stationed in a northern railway workshop at Alambagh,and as it monkeyed around,it pressed a lever,setting the engine in motion. The unmanned engine hurtled down the track,hit another engine which got derailed but still travelled about 200 m before getting bogged in muddy ground,just about 15 m short of a row of shops on the busy Kanpur Road. The incident took place on Tuesday evening. For more than 36 hours,the railways kept mum. On Thursday,the shed-man (supervisor) was placed under suspension and an inquiry ordered. While railway officials are unwilling to discuss what exactly happened,a workshop employee,who was leaving for home after his duty when the incident took place,said the engine was running and it was a monkey that got in and pulled the lever. I did not see the monkey but others said they had seen it in the engine when it suddenly started moving, said the employee. The area where the workshop is located has a large population of monkeys. Safety Officer R P Mishra said,It is not yet confirmed whether there was a monkey in the engine or any person was driving it. It will be found out in the inquiry. Mishra said the shed-man,Mata Prasad,had been suspended as it was his responsibility to keep a vigil on the engine. However,Vijay Kumar Patel,secretary of the All India Other Backward Class Railway Employees Association,defended Mata Prasad and held the shunt-man responsible for incident. It was the responsibility of shunt-man to control the engine. At the time of the incident,there was no shunt-man in engine, he said. Mata Prasad,who was injured in the incident and is being treated at the Railway Hospital at Charbagh,said: It was raining and the shunt-man was not around. When I saw a few monkeys aboard the engine,I rushed to chase them away. But I tripped and fell down. According to an eye-witness,the incident took place around 9 pm on Tuesday. I saw an engine hitting another engine parked under the shed in the workshop. That engine got derailed but still moved about 200 m, said the employee. Mishra said that the first engine was in running condition as it had been brought for maintenance work. The first engine stopped automatically after hitting the second engine. Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer (Diesel) S P Tiwari,whose charge includes the workshop,refused to discuss the issue. Divisional Railway Manager Chahatey Ram was not available for comment.
