Three passengers threw a 24-year-old man out of a running train on December 26, 2004, after he protested against their smoking in the compartment.

Amaresh Panda, who was travelling from Delhi [Images] in the Purushottam Express, had asked the three to stop smoking as it inconvenienced the other passengers. When the train left Bokaro railway station in Jharkhand at night, the men pushed Amaresh out of the train, his family said.

Amaresh, who suffered serious injuries, was spotted near the tracks the next morning by two men. They got him admitted to the Bokaro Steel General Hospital.

His family later shifted him to a nursing home in Bhubaneswar.

A case has been registered with the railway police at Bokaro.