Railway TTE accused of urinating near passenger berth granted anticipatory bail by Bombay High Court

A railway travelling ticket examiner (TTE) who was booked for urinating near the berth of a passenger in the middle of the night, was granted anticipatory bail by Bombay High Court subject to the condition that he will deposit money for installing a water cooler at Thane railway station..Single judge bench Justice Bharati Dangre noted that the accused had shown repentance and decided on his own to contribute ₹25,000 to railways so that the amount can be used for erecting the water cooler facility.“It can be said that a ticket checker, a custodian of railway, has engaged in an act which is unpardonable. The act may not require custody, but going by his conduct, the custodian is expected to not behave in an obnoxious way by urinating at the door especially when he was in inebriated state,” Justice Dangre noted.The Court opined that the accused was entitled to protection and directed that in the event the applicant is arrested, he be released on bail upon depositing the amount agreed by him.“Amount so deposited in 4 weeks will be used for the purpose of installing water cooler, to be installed within 3 months”, Justice Dangre said..The factual matrix was that during a long distance train travel, a female passenger heard water dripping near her berth and discovered that a person was urinating near her berth.While she was calling for help, her co-passengers noticed that the accused was zipping his pants. One of them even recorded the incident on phone. Subsequently, it emerged that the culprit was in fact a TTE.Based on the complaint of the passenger, an FIR was registered with the Karjat railway police.The statements of witnesses were also recorded, and the video was examined.“The video was put across, the applicants seem to be in an inebriated state, the still photographs show he was apologising to the person sitting at his feet repenting,” Justice Dangre observed while proceeding to accept his plea for anticipatory bail.