On at least three occasions in the run-up to the Railway Recruitment Board's examination on October 19, where candidates from North India were attacked by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) Headquarters in New Delhi had informed the Maharashtra Police that it was anticipating trouble at many of the examination centres and wanted the local police to beef-up security.In one of its communications to Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Ramrao Wagh, the RPF had expressed concern over "certain local political activists and hoodlums" who could target applicants from outside Maharashtra and had demanded that sufficient police strength be made available to guard the exam centres.The October 19 written exam was conducted to fill up 518 posts in the categories of enquiry-cum-reservation clerks, goods guards and assistant station masters. Out of the 2.29 lakh applicants, only 26,000-odd could appear for the exam following the violence perpetrated by MNS workers. The first missive was sent on October 3 wherein the RPF informed the state police about the examination giving out a list of all the examination centres. "We told the Maharashtra Police that a similar problem had taken place during railway exams in 2006 and that ample force was to be deployed at the 144 exam centres in Mumbai," a top RPF official told The Indian Express. This communication was then followed up with two more letters, the first one sent on October 9 and the second on October 16 when RPF officials, both at the headquarter and state level underlined the “possibility of a disruption”.RPF officials also said that the stone-pelting on applicants in Thane on October 19 were recorded on camera by the MNS workers who later sent the video footage to all the news channels.
