mumbai ordering the central railway to pay nearly rs 32 lakh compensation to a bhandup woman who was robbed of her jewellery and cash while travelling to varanasi in 2015 a district forum said it is the duty of the travelling ticket examiner tte to prevent unauthorised persons from entering the trainpoonam chobey had alleged she lost jewellery worth rs 6 lakh and rs 25000 cash during her journey in a second ac compartment of a csmtvaranasi train the forum however directed the railways to reimburse the cash and only those jewellery items for which she produced bills rs 19 lakh the compensation amount also included interest and costs toward mental agonywhile finding central railway guilty of deficiency in service the forum considered the national consumer commission orders in similar cases the ttes various duties as specified by the railways include ensuring unauthorised persons are not allowed to enter the reserved compartments and the end doors of the vestibule are kept locked between 10pm and 6 am to prevent outsiders from entering the coachhe shall remain vigilant particularly during night time and ensure that intruders beggars hawkers and unauthorised persons do not enter the coach hence the tte on duty was particularly required to take special care in the night the national commission had iterated in an earlier order while referring to the extract from the railway websitechobey had submitted the complaint before the south mumbai district consumer disputes redressal forum in july 2016 she told the forum her family comprising six members had boarded the mahanagari express on may 15 2015 the family was on its way to varanasi for a wedding she said the family went to bed at 130 am chobey said she kept her purse near her pillow she recalled that when she woke up a little after 430 am her purse was missing alarmed she began to search for it in the compartment and eventually found it lying empty and open near the toiletchobey informed the tte and filled a form describing the contents of the bag she said she did not suspect the staff as she had seen some unknown people in the compartment before going to bed and believed them to be the culprits while an fir was initially registered with the bhusaval railway police it was subsequently transferred to their counterparts in manmad after a few weeks she was informed the thieves could not be traced and the case was closedthe railways denied the allegations and said since its staff was not responsible for the theft they were not liable to pay