Chaos erupted on the Kasaragod – Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express train on Sunday, June 25 after a man allegedly locked himself up in a toilet for hours and refused to come outside despite multiple requests. He had allegedly boarded the train at Kasaragod without a ticket and immediately locked himself up in one of the toilets. The Railway Police Force (RPF) subsequently arrested the accused, Sharan, after breaking open the toilet door with the help of the technical staff at the Shoranur station in Kerala’s Palakkad district.
Though Sharan had initially claimed that he was from Mumbai, it was later revealed that he hailed from Uppala in Kasaragod. As per reports, he had multiple wounds on his body when he was arrested. A railway spokesperson told TNIE that Sharan had first climbed into the executive coach of the train and upon learning that only people with reservation can travel in it, he dashed into the toilet. Besides bolting the door, he is also learnt to have tied a rope tightly around the handle to bolster the lock.
Though several passengers and railway staff members requested him to open the door, Sharan reportedly refused to come out. Even after the RPF broke the door open, they had to forcibly drag him out of the cubicle. The police told media persons that he has not revealed why he locked himself up in the toilet, but that they suspect he has mental health issues. They are also probing if he was intoxicated when the incident took place.