Ravi ki duniya

Ravi ki duniya

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

The Gangapur City: Prem Naam hai mera…




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      

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