Nine of the 10 Border Security Force (BSF) Jawans who reportedly went missing on Thursday, 28 June, between Bardhaman and Dhanbad railways stations, reported back for duty on Friday, reported ANI. The officers will reportedly be served with departmental action.
Following reports of the BSF jawans absconding, sources told had The Quint that the jawans had in reality returned to their respective homes.
A total of 83 soldiers were travelling on a special army train, which left for Jammu from West Bengal. After a brief halt at Uttar Pradesh's Mughalsarai Railway Station, a headcount revealed that 10 soldiers were "missing".
Of the 9 jawans who deboarded the train without permission, 8 were constables and 1 was a head constable. Constables Deepak Kumar, Deepak Singh, Amit Kumar, Charan Singh, Aswani Kumar, Rohit Verma, Govind Kumar and Pradeep Kumar disembarked from the train.
The only head constable to have deboarded the train was Kailash Kumar.
The Quint has learnt that all aforementioned security personnel were contacted by the Unit Officer personally over the phone. The train in-charge has also directed jawans to join the train immediately.
Sources said that special trains that ferry soldiers or move contingents from one state to another do not maintain specific timings. "It can take from a week to 10 days to transport a contingent from one place to another," a source said, adding that some of the jawans got off midway to reach their homes.
"They usually tell their commander and reach the destination on time. However, not on the same train, for it may take many days," he said.
The soldiers coordinate with their colleagues to keep track of the train, the source said, adding that the jawans reach the destination directly and report for their duty on time.
A First Information Report (FIR) was lodged by the second-in-command at the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Mughalsarai, saying the jawans were "absent without leave."
"Eighty-three BSF jawans were going to Jammu and Kashmir in a special train. Out of them, 10 jawans went missing somewhere in between Dhanbad and Bardhaman without informing their commander. We have filed an absconding report and have started investigating the matter," Jitendra Kumar Yadav, Sub Inspector, GRP Mughalsarai was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Sources told The Quint that this was not the first time that an FIR was lodged, and not the last time, either. "The commander, in order to avoid landing in trouble, in case of an undue incident with a soldier or a group, usually files a missing report."
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