Kannur: “No one should sleep on trains. One has to stay awake till dawn. Because even if someone is killed inside a coach, no one will know,” said former minister PK Sreemathy, expressing her anger over lack of railway security. The audacity of the thieves who entered the coach and stole her bag continues to haunt her. What shocked her the most, she said, was that no one responded even after she pulled the emergency chain and the train came to a halt.

Sreemathy, who lost a bag containing cash, documents and gold during a train journey in Bihar, returned to Kerala the other day. She said that even six days after the theft, there has not been a single inquiry from the Railways.

She was robbed on Tuesday night while travelling from Kolkata to Samastipur to attend the Bihar state conference of the Mahila Association. She realised the bag was missing when she woke up at 5.45 am. She immediately pulled the emergency chain, but neither the ticket examiner nor anyone else came. The train resumed its journey. About half an hour later, a police officer arrived. Her companion, Mariyam Dhawla, explained the incident to him in Hindi and Bihari.

However, the officer showed no seriousness in responding, she said. Losing her phone and the data stored in it was particularly distressing. Even after six days, she has received no information regarding the theft. “When thieves can reach out to the berth, it is a direct threat to life itself,” Sreemathy said.