In a tragic incident, Vikram Vijayan, a 28-year-old Bengaluru-based engineer working with IT major Wipro died after he came under a moving train as he went to see off his parents on Monday, 17 December, night. The tragedy occurred at Carmelaram railway station in the eastern fringe of the city.
Vikram had accompanied his parents Vijayan Chakkingal and Udaya Kumari to the station where they were set to board the Yeshwantpur-Kannur Express train and return to their native Palakkad after spending some days with their son.
The tragedy occured when Vikram had attempted to get off the moving train after keeping his parents’ luggage in their seats. The train is scheduled to halt at the station only for two minutes, which many commuters have pointed out, is insufficient.
“Vikram jumped out of the train, but in a direction opposite to which it was moving. He lost control and fell in the gap between the moving train and the platform; he came under the wheels. His legs, hands and head were severed from his body. Seeing Vikram fall, Vijayan too jumped out of the moving train and sustained severe injuries,” a railway police officer told The Times of India.
Seeing this, fellow passengers pulled the chain and Vijayan was taken to a hospital where he is recovering.
Vikram’s body was taken to Bowring Hospital for post-mortem on Tuesday, 18 December, and police have registered a case of unnatural death based on a complaint by Carmelaram Railway Station Master Chandan Kumar.
A 65-year-old woman had died under similar circumstances in February. Eshwaramma who was travelling to the city from Vijay along with her husband and daughter. As the train was moving slowly through KR Puram Railway Station, they decided to deboard the train although the train did not have a scheduled stop. While her husband and daughter safely got off, she came under the wheels of the train and died on the spot.
Earlier this month, Sagar Patil, son of a former MLA and Belagavi City Mayor Sambhaji Patil died after he fell off a moving train near Malleshwaram. Sagar was returning to Belagavi by Rani Chennamma Express on 3 December. Reportedly, he fell off the train as it was moving through a bridge and hit the ground 25 feet below.
His fellow travellers, which included Belagavi Deputy Mayor Madhusri Pujari, were alerted after he did not return for a long time after going out to freshen up.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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