The Gangapur City (GGC)
shed was a busy and prominent shed of Western Railway with enviable holding.
The shed was headed by a Loco Foreman, a frontline supervisor or as is said in jargon man
at ‘cutting edge’. He has to extract work from his workforce in such a way so
as to meet deadlines and targets, a ‘tall order’ which incentives alone cannot
achieve.
The incident is of late
1980s. Prem Narayan Gurjar popular as Prem Gurjar (a la film villain Prem
Chopra) was working as a Fireman. One day he had some altercation in the shed
with Mr. Mahavar, his Loco Foreman (LF). Out of rage Prem hit Mahavar, his
boss, on the head and fled leaving Mahavar bleeding profusely. It was a case of
culpable homicide – a serious misconduct on the part of Prem.
Prem Gurjar was suspended
and issued a major penalty charge sheet called SF-5 in Railway parlance. Those
of you familiar with law would agree that ‘service’ of a charge sheet is an
essential ingredient in the departmental inquiry. Few words about Prem Gurjar.
Pem Gurjar was a local ‘dada’. His elder brother was the village headman and
together they had vast pool of land in the area to pass as a ‘rich party’ but
we all know Government service does provide you with a kind of respectability,
money cannot buy.
Now where is the question
of ‘service’ when Prem Gurjar is on run? Though there are ways like deemed
service. Such as pasting the charge sheet at work spot notice board and
residence, eventually publishing it in local news paper. With Prem Gurjar’s
clout and seeing what happened to
Mahavar nobody was prepared to do any pasting and invite his wrath. Each
passing day of no action, was a setback to the ‘authorities’. How can a
supervisor command respect and take work.
The Divisional Railway
Manager, Kota, Shri Avtar Singh Trehan inquired in a Saturday club evening about
the status. The Branch Officer in charge Mr Vipin Jha informed “the charge
sheet has not been served till now.” DRM
got furious. I was asked to leave for GGC next morning by the first available
train and ensure ‘service’
With my Chief Welfare
Inspector Kaptan Kaushik – a sportsman of long standing and Welfare Inspector
of the beat straight away (being Sunday ) we went to the house of the second
line supervisor as he had the charge sheet envelope. This guy was so scared he
did not even open the door and passed the envelope through space in the wooden
gate. The envelope was in open condition. I did not make much of it, as at that
time sole aim in mind was how to ‘serve’. Later I came to know this guy had
already supplied a xerox copy to Prem Gurjar who was already on his way to
Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Jodhpur to obtain injunction.
(Jaipur bench was yet to
set up) With envelope we came to Officers Rest House. An important revelation
was Prem Gurjar has a Railway quarter which he has unofficially sublet to a
private party. With the help of RPF Commissioner the charge sheet was got
pasted at the door and two signatures obtained in witness thereof. Witnesses were arranged by RPF from the guys
found loitering at platform of any Railway station. I doubt whether the charge
sheet was ever got pasted. Nevertheless, we had our office copy complete with
signatures of witnesses. That was more than good, technically speaking. Mission
accomplished, we returned to Kota same evening.
CAT did not entertain Prem
Gurjar. Next step was to set up Inquiry. A seasoned Personnel Officer, Shri Hub
Lal was nominated as Inquiry Officer. Here again, the officers of Prem Gurjar’s
stream chickened out on one pretext or the other. Inquiry Officer was briefed
in no uncertain terms what was expected of him.
In the meanwhile
disappointed with the CAT, Prem Gurjar on the advice of some ‘wise man’ got
himself admitted in hospital that too in the Railway hospital of GGC. Papers
showed him an in-door patient from back date i.e. two days prior to the date of
incident. When Inquiry Officer landed in GGC, Prem Gurjar was certain of his
victory, hence, met I.O. with extra warmth. I.O. took copies of all the relevant medical
papers, statements etc. and asked just one question separately from both
Pem Gurjar and medical guy
“If an indoor patient
just like that wants to go out, some kind of gate pass is issued to him or is
he required to make an entry in any register with time in and out with date ?”
Obviously, the reply was
“No”
Entire case was hinged on
this one “No” Charges were proved as witness were there who saw Prem Gurjar hit
Mahavar. Prem Gurjar was dismissed from service. Again he rushed to CAT-JU.
With the help of his advocate he could find some lacunae in the procedure such
as a copy of the report/findings was not supplied to Prem Gurjar and he was
denied reasonable opportunity to submit his final defense and this was against
the basic principles of natural justice. Hon’ble Member CAT ordered that a copy
of the findings be provided to him and final defense taken into consideration before
a considered order is passed. Of course! Procedure as pointed out by the CAT-JU
was followed to T without affecting the final findings/penalty.
Thus, in his own game, like
Prem Chopra in reel life, Prem Gurjar too got beaten up in real life.
*Shri
Avtar Singh Trehan IRTS passed away
in 2020 in Jaipur
Hub
Lal I.O. our Hercule Poirot is
settled in Kota and once in a while gives that precious clue to the ones who
value his insight.
Vipin
Jha IRSEE is settled somewhere in Janakpuri,Delhi
