Mumbai, July 6: Two city journalists — a female PTI staffer (name withheld on request) and NDTV India reporter Dharmendra Tiwari — were allegedly threatened, abused and assaulted by two railway officials inside a Titwala-bound local train on Saturday night. The incident occurred when the reporters were returning home to Ghatkopar from Sion at 10.45 pm.

According to a complaint filed by the reporters with the Kurla railway police, two men entered the train in an inebriated state at Kurla and began misbehaving with the lady reporter. It was later found that the accused were in fact railway officials — one, an assistant station master of Trombay yard Shashikant Patil and the other his junior, Ravi Thakur. The duo was suspended immediately by the Central Railways.

According to Tiwari, “we were standing at the footboard of the compartment when a drunk Patil and Thakur entered the train and stood next to my friend.” Patil attempted to lean on the lady thrice on the pretext of talking on his phone, following which she alerted Tiwari to the harassment. Later, he began hurling abuses on his phone and at the scribes, they alleged.

“We however decided to endure it till we reached Ghatkopar station to avoid a fight in the running train,” they said. At Ghatkopar when the train halted, the journalists forced the two men to alight with the help of a co-passenger. “When we tried to take the men to the police station, the two railway employees tried to assault me. My shirt was torn and I lost my gold chain in the scuffle,” Tiwari said. A case of molestation, assault and outraging the modesty of a woman has been registered against Patil and Thakur by the Kurla Railway Police.

According to a Central Railways senior public relations official, “The two accused have been suspended for the alleged misbehaviour and assault. An internal inquiry has also been ordered into the incident.” On Sunday, Patil and Thakur were produced before the Bhoiwada Metropolitan Magistrate’s court and granted bail.