JOIN USA commuter on a long-distance train was given a "sound" punishment by a group of fellow passengers for snoring loudly and disturbing their sleep.
The bizarre incident took place last week in a 3rd AC coach of the LTT-Darbhanga Pawan Express, when passengers found the snoring of a fellow passenger so offending that they all decided not to let him sleep so that they can catch up with their sleep.
The offending passenger, identified only as Ramchandra, was made to stay awake five to six hours.
A heated argument took place in the train over this.
Ganesh S Virha, chief ticket inspector of the Jabalpur division of the West Central Railway, confirmed the incident.
Virha, who boarded the train in Jabalpur, said Ramchandra did not feel offended by the punishment given to him by his co-travellers.
Hence, he did not file any complaint with the railway police, he said.
Providing details of the incident, Virha told PTI over the phone, "I got to know about the commotion when I took charge of the coach at Jabalpur at around 5 am (on Thursday last).
"The train was a bit late and when I entered the coach, passengers briefed me about the heated argument that took place during the night journey. Ramchandra said he was persuaded by fellow passengers not to sleep for some time."
Ramchandra initially resisted the idea but later agreed to their proposal, he said.
"I sought to know whether the passenger (Ramchandra) wanted to lodge a complaint with the police if he felt victimised or offended, but he replied in the negative."
"In such cases, we take the help of the police, but thankfully here the matter got sorted out amicably. When I revisited the coach later I found all passengers (involved in the matter) had become friends," Virha said.
When contacted, a senior Central Railway official said snoring in trains is a very common problem and all zones regularly get complaint from passengers about it.