Railway authorities in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are yet to identify the train ticket examiner (TTE) who allegedly pushed an ageing Bihar couple off a running train near Allahabad, causing the man’s death on the tracks and grave injuries to the woman on Wednesday.
Bulki Devi and her husband Rameshwar Mandal, residents of Basaitha Tola of Bihar’s Madhepura district, were thrown off a Darbhanga-bound train that they boarded with tickets at Allahabad station after having a holy dip at Sangam. According to Ms Devi’s statements recorded by GRP officials at Muzaffarpur railway station, her husband was run over by the train and she sustained head injuries.
East central railway CPRO Dilip Kumar told this newspaper that the TTE was yet to be identified and that efforts to that effect were still on. GRP sources said Ms Devi’s statements were sent to the GRP officials in Allahabad for action, following which the SP of Allahabad railway police spoke to Muzaffarpur GRP officials. Ms Devi’s family was handed over Mandal’s body after autopsy on Friday.
Meanwhile, some passengers travelling in the train, New Delhi-Darbhanga Swatantrata Senani Express, told a Patna Hindi daily newspaper in Patna that they witnessed the TTE quarrelling with the couple before throwing them off the train and that there were policemen with the TTE.