Kohima, December 27 2009: The 'Dashing IRB' has, yet again, managed to make the headlines in even the national dailies for all the wrong reasons.

This time, they reportedly indulged in another of their infamous rampages during returning after election duty at Jharkhand, creating havoc and physically assaulting nearly a dozen of railway staff at New Jalpaiguri under West Bengal on the night of December 23 .

According to reports, jawans of the 13 IRB, numbering around 800, were returning from Jharkhand after election duty when the train in which they were traveling halted at New Jalpaiguri station following a technical snag around 10 pm, resulting in some delay.

During the halt, some of the rogue IRB jawans who were reportedly in an inebriated condition, stormed into the offices of the railway station at New Jalpaiguri.

They beat up some nine to ten of the staffers, including the manager of the station.

While it could not be confirmed, the source said all the victims of the IRB rampage were hospitalized in nearby hospitals.

It was said that the IRB jawans that went on the rampage was led by a Sub-Inspector (SI).

While the issue has been given wide coverage by the national media, Nagaland Home Minister Imkong Imchen, when contacted over telephone, denied having any knowledge of the incident having been out of station during the holidays.

It was informed that New Jalpaiguri Railways has already lodged an FIR and have even sought the intervention of Union Railways Minister, Mamata Bannerji.

The New Jalpaiguri incident, as per the sources, has set an unwanted precedent and has come as a disgrace for Nagaland and its police forces.

Additional information from The Telegraph reported that a group of drunk constables from Nagaland went on the rampage on the night of December 23 at New Jalpaiguri station, breaking window panes and assaulting railway staff with rifle butts.

Six of the 12 railway employees injured in the attack were admitted to NJP Railway Hospital.

The policemen were apparently venting their anger at the railway authorities for delaying the replacement of the engine of the train that was taking them from Ranchi to Dharmanagar in Tripura.

They were returning from poll duty in Jharkhand.

Pawan Kumar, the area manager of the NJP station, said the special train stopped at the railway siding located off the platforms around 9pm for filling up water and for replacing the engine.

"There were 18 coaches and number of personnel of the Nagaland police was around 800.They were returning from Jharkhand after completing poll duty.

Around 11pm, I came to know that the angry policemen had started ransacking the station office and beating up all our staff present at the spot," the area manager said.

"When I went there to investigate, I was also beaten up," he said today at his office.

Gurudas Mondal, the station manager, said the violence continued till after 11pm.Mondal said the policemen were getting restless after they saw that the locomotive was de-linked from the train and sent off to the diesel shed.

"They were drunk and they began shouting that the engine would not come back and they would be stranded.

Then around 10.30pm the policemen attacked us all of a sudden.

About 30 to 40 of them barged into the office of the station manager and began flailing at us with their rifle butts and hit us too," Mondal said.

The policemen then damaged furniture and broke the windowpanes of the station manager's office.

"A dozen of us were injured and we were taken to the railway hospital.

The Railway Police Force and the GRP somehow managed to calm them and the train finally left around 1am," said the station manager, who is among those to have been released from the hospital after first aid.

Mondal said that while it took about 40 minutes to fill water in the rake, it takes about two hours for the batteries of a diesel locomotive to get fully charged before it can start pulling the coaches.

He lodged a complaint against the constables with the Government Railway Police at NJP today.

An officer from the RPF, said the personnel from Nagaland were intoxicated.

"And there was not sufficient GRP or the RPF at the station at that moment," he said.

Doungal Kuki, the public relations officer of Nagaland Police, said the personnel belonged to the 13 Indian Reserve Nagaland Armed Police based at Chumukedima near Dimapur.

He said not much information had been received except that a sub-inspector had assaulted a railway official at NJP on the night of December 23 .

Kuki did not disclose the identity of the sub-inspector but said he had been "disarmed".

"They are on their way back and other necessary action would be taken after they arrive," Kuki said from Kohima.

Paritosh Pal, the secretary of Northeast Frontier Railway Mazdoor Union's NJP branch, said railway minister Mamata Banerjee would be informed about the incident.

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