Water bottle dispute: Caterer loses railway contract, fined for manhandling passenger

The Railways has terminated the service contract, imposed Rs 5 lakh fine and lodged an FIR against a catering service firm after a video went viral on social media purportedly showing the manhandling of a passenger by its staff for registering a complaint regarding overcharging.

The passenger had registered the complaint on RailMadad, a grievance redressal mechanism.

"The case is being taken with utmost seriousness. A penalty of Rs 5 lakh has been imposed on the caterer.

"An FIR has been lodged by GRP (Government Railway Police), Kathua. The matter remains under strict watch. Stern action will follow based on the investigation outcome," the Ministry of Railway posted on X on Thursday along with the viral video.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) also issued a letter for the premature termination of the contract of the firm, Hotel Rajasthan, awarded on May 4 last year to provide catering services in trains for five years.

The staffer who manhandled the passenger was Pawan Kumar, the IRCTC letter said.

"The licensee vendor, Mr Pawan Kumar, has acted in a criminal manner, which has tarnished the image of IRCTC and the Indian Railways," it added.

According to GRP Kathua, the passenger Balwan Das, while travelling on the Hemkunt Express on the intervening night of 6-7 May, purchased a water bottle and noticed that the catering service provider not only charged Rs 20 instead of Rs 15 but also sold him a substandard product.

"He lodged a complaint on 139 (RailMadad), after which staff of the catering firm came to his berth and manhandled him while the train was near Pathankot station. Being a resident of Kathua, he de-boarded here and lodged a formal complaint based on which we registered a zero FIR," a GRP official told PTI on the phone.

"Since the incident took place in Pathankot, we have sent the FIR to the GRP, Pathankot for further investigation," the official said.

"The passenger's X account is in the name of Mr Vishal from where he posted the whole video and it went viral," the official added.

The video showed how the staff was threatening and asking Das to come down from the upper berth for raising complaints of overcharging. When he resisted, the video showed one of the staffers climbing on and bashing him. Later, the passenger showed injury marks on his hand and alleged that he was badly manhandled and his clothes were torn.

The video was posted by various social media influencers, raising the vulnerability of passengers and criticising the absence of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) when the incident happened.