A railway pointsman on Saturday, 17 April, saved the life of a six-year-old boy who fell on the railway tracks at Vangani Station near Mumbai by pulling him onto the platform in the nick of time as a speeding train approached.
The CCTV footage of the incident, which occurred on platform number 2, shows a man, later identified as railway pointsman Mayur Shelke, ran from the other side of the railway tracks towards the boy as the train came in fast.
The video shows Shelke lifting the boy onto the platform and then pulling himself up.
"The child was unable to climb onto the platform on his own. At the same time train No. 01302 Up (Udyan Express) was approaching on the same track," the Central Railway said in a release.
According to witnesses, the boy was accompanied by a blind woman and they were walking close to the edge of the platform. When the boy fell, the woman on the platform desperately shouted for help, which alerted Shelke.
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal spoke to Shelke and applauded his courageous act.
“This work of his cannot be compared with any prize or money, but he will be rewarded for fulfilling his responsibility, and motivating humanity with his work,” said Goyal in a tweet on Monday, 19 April.
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