Lucknow:

The Allahabad High Court on Sunday pulled up both the Uttar Pradesh government and the railway police over the attack on a woman constable who was found in a “pool of blood” inside a train compartment on August 30.

Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker convened a late evening hearing at his residence on Sunday along with Justice Ashutosh Srivastava based on a WhatsApp message he received about the case. The two-judge bench slammed the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for “failing in discharge of its duties” and ordered the Government Railway Police (GRP) to submit a status update on its investigation into the case by September 13.

According to the GRP, the woman constable was found in a “pool of blood” with injuries to her face and head in a Saryu Express compartment on August 30. She was then taken to a hospital in Lucknow where her condition is believed to be stable. An FIR was lodged by the woman’s brother on the same day, the police said. The police and the family of the woman have both denied any sexual assault angle to the case.

The court also issued notices to the Centre, the Ministry of Railways, the director general of RPF, the Uttar Pradesh government, and the Ministry of Home and State Commission for Women.

“The 47-year-old woman head constable, who hails from the Prayagraj district, was posted in Sultanpur district,” Puja Yadav, the officer in charge of the investigation had said after the incident. “She was coming from Sultanpur to Ayodhya on ‘Saavan Mela’ duty. She was supposed to deboard at Ayodhya, but reached a railway station called Manakpur as she had slept in the train. The incident took place between Ayodhya and Mankapur.”

Senior officials of the UP Police visited the injured woman constable at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow. The police are yet to solve the case and have been unable to determine the motive behind the brutal attack on the woman.