JOIN USA Railway Protection Force (RPF) jawan was killed by angry hawkers near Malda station in north Bengal on Monday.
The hawkers got into a clash with RPF personnel after the latter stopped them from selling their wares on the station premises.
According to senior police officials, trouble started on Monday morning after some RPF men beat up a hawker, severely injuring him, when he was selling his wares at the station. Four months ago, the RPF had asked hawkers not to sell their wares on the station premises and the hawkers have been seething after being barred from their livelihood.
Having failed to make their voices heard, around 200 hawkers raised a protest outside the RPF camp nearby.
The situation became tense as hawkers started throwing brickbats, stones and glass bottles at the jawans. “In the heat of the moment, one of the RPF jawan fired a round in the air, following which other jawans also fired 16 more rounds in the air to disperse the angry mob. The agitated hawkers then targeted Samaresh Samanta, a 35-year-old RPF jawan, who had fired the first salvo. They hit him repeatedly on the head with stones and glass bottles,” a senior railway official said.
Badly injured, Samanta was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his
injuries.