Is a Union minister above the law?

KOCHI: It was quarter past three in the morning on June 25. Maveli Express from Mangalore to Thiruvananthapuram had just picked up momentum after leaving Alappuzha railway station. All of a sudden, someone pulled the chain and the train stopped. Three persons got off the train and vanished into the thick of the night. To the surprise of the guards who rushed to the spot, they found Union Minister of State for Power K C Venugopal walking off. It was one of the aides of the Minister who pulled the chain for him, sources said.Pulling the chain in any case other than accident or emergency is a criminal offence.If a commoner had done the offence, the railways would have slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 or three months imprisonment. However, the minister said that there was no such incident. “I woke up from sleep only after the train started to move. Then I jumped from the slowly moving train,” Venugopal told Express.Following the incident, the train had to be detained for 12 minutes. The railway officials had sent a report on the issue to the zonal office in Chennai, sources with the Railways said. “We send such reports to Chennai every day. On an average we get around 10 cases of chain-pulling every day,” said J Vinayan, Senior Operations Manager, Thiruvananthapuram Division.The Minister had booked the ticket to travel from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram. He and his gunmen were travelling in A1 coach (coach number 97086) of the train.  When the chain is pulled, brake pressure will be released subsequently applying the brake. Then engine driver and guard will get an indication of from which coach the chain was pulled.