Ludhiana: Have you ever heard of a farmer becoming the owner of a train? That is what happened when Sampooran Singh of Ludhiana briefly took possession of the Amritsar-Delhi Swarn Shatabdi Express after a court order, in a case that highlighted both the negligence of Indian Railways and the long legal battles farmers face for fair compensation.
The case dates back to 2007, when land from several farmers, including Singh’s, was acquired for the Ludhiana-Chandigarh railway line. While the railways fixed compensation at Rs 25 lakh per acre, farmers in a nearby village received Rs 71 lakh per acre. Singh challenged the disparity in court, which later raised his compensation to more than Rs 1.5 crore per acre. By 2015, however, the Northern Railway had paid only Rs 42 lakh.
In 2017, after continued non-payment, a district and sessions judge ordered the attachment of the Shatabdi Express along with the Ludhiana station master’s office. Singh, accompanied by court officials, formally took possession of the train, briefly becoming its “owner.” Within five minutes, a section engineer secured the train’s release through another court official.
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Singh’s lawyer, Rakesh Gandhi, said at the time that the court handed over the train in lieu of unpaid dues amounting to Rs 1 crore. The court also gave Singh ownership of the station master’s office in Ludhiana.
Such cases are not unprecedented. In 2016, an express train was seized for two hours at Harihar station in Karnataka after a 62-year-old farmer won a compensation case. In 2015, two farmers in Himachal Pradesh were paid Rs 30 lakh at a station to allow an express train to depart after a similar order.
Singh’s case remains pending in court, and he continues his legal battle for full compensation. Yet his brief ownership of the Shatabdi Express has gone down in history, a story that still astonishes many.
