Twenty-year-old Pallavi Vikamsey, the youngest daughter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) president Nilesh Vikamsey, was found dead on the railway tracks in Central Mumbai on 4 October.
The law student, had gone missing while on her way back from a law firm at Fort in south Mumbai, Oasis Counsel and Advisory, where she was doing her internship. Prima facie, the police have said it is a case of suicide, speculating that she is likely to have jumped from a moving train to end her life.
The Evening of 4 October
Pallavi was last seen boarding a local train at CSMT station at around 6 pm on 4 October, an official said. When Pallavi failed to return home, her family members filed a missing complaint with the MRA Marg police station. They also reached out to friends, family and acquaintances – especially, the well-knit Chartered Accountants’ circle – to circulate photos of Pallavi and contact details on social media platforms.
However, it was the Dadar police that found the body of a girl on the tracks between Parel and Currey Road station later that evening and filed an accidental death report. On the morning of 6 October, Pallavi’s relatives identified the body. It was handed over to the family after a postmortem at KEM hospital.
A senior forensics doctor at KEM told Mid-Day: “The body was cut into two pieces below the umbilicus, and had multiple fractures over the skull. Also, multiple bruises were visible at different places and cause of death was given as ‘haemorrhagic shock’ following multiple injuries”.
MRA Marg Inspector Varpe that the case was under investigation and has been registered as an accidental death.
According to police sources, Pallavi texted some members of her family before switching off her phone, saying she was going to end her life and to not hold anyone responsible for it.
The police believe she boarded a train from CST and might have jumped somewhere between Parel and Currey Road. Pallavi’s father Nilesh was called for a statement but told the police that he did not have any information.
Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, Geeta Gaikward, a BMC employee who was in the same slow train Pallavi boarded from CST station, said:
I was in the second class compartment but was facing the first class compartment in which she was travelling. She was leaning and looking outside... and then she suddenly fell. We thought she fell down and might have sustained injuries as there was a train approaching from the opposite side. So I immediately called 182 and informed them that a girl had fallen down and that she might need some help.
Gaikward also told the regional daily that neither was anyone standing close enough to Pallavi to have pushed her, nor was the train so crowded for her to have slipped from the coach.
Her body was later handed over to her family after post-mortem, he said. “Prima facie it appears that the girl committed suicide,” the official confirmed. Pallavi’s phone and bag were not found next to her body. No foul play has come to light yet as investigation is underway.
Since her demise, the CA community has come forward, along with Pallavi’s relatives and friends, to offer their condolences across various social media.
Pallavi was a fourth year student at Pravin Gandhi College of Law in Mumbai. She had previously completed her graduation from HR College of Commerce and Economics in south Mumbai. She lived in Parel with her family.
Her father, ICAI President Nilesh, is a partner at Khimji Kunverji and Co, along with his siblings.
(With PTI inputs)
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