A harrowing video emerged on Wednesday, 27 May, from Muzzafarpur station in Bihar where a toddler is seen standing near the dead body of a woman, playing with the blanket that covers her. Another child with a bottle of water in his hand is seen standing nearby.
While the Patna High Court has taken suo moto cognizance of the incident and asked the Bihar Government to reply, the family differs from the authorities over the cause of death.
Who Was the Woman?
Thee deceased has been identified as Arbina Khatoon (35). She was travelling in the Shramik train from Ahmedabad to her house in Bihar's Katihar. Due to lack of employment, she along with her two children, Arman and Rehmat, decided to return home.
She was accompanied by her sister Kohinoor and brother-in-law Wazir.
Her sister said, “We had left Ahmedabad for Bihar on 23 May and even before reaching Bihar on 25 May, Arbina had started feeling sick. She was feeling really hot on the way back. She did not eat anything. She drank water but it was hot. We also poured some water on her body in the train so she feels a bit relieved but her body gave in on the way.”
Railway Police Says She Was Already Sick, Family Disagrees
While the Railway police says that the woman had a prolonged illness, the family refutes the claim.
The Quint spoke to Arbina' sister and brother-in-law about her health.
Wazir said, "She had been working in Ahemadabad since eight months. She did not get sick then. We lived together and we didn't know about her illness, how does the Railways know? Arbina was not sick. It was so hot in the train that anyone could have died."
Meanwhile, Chandrashekhar Singh, Muzaffarpur District Magistrate said, “We got information that a woman died on board a train on 25 May. She was going to Katihar, her body was deboarded at Muzaffarpur station. She had some health issues. There's no problem of unavailability of food and water in trains.”
When the Muzaffarpur administration was informed about the incident, they sent the police and Railway police to the spot, following which, her body was sent for post-mortem.
Deputy SP, Railway Police, Ramakant Upadhyay told The Quint that Arbina was mentally unstable.
“She was sick. She died even before reaching Muzaffarpur."
When The Quint asked Upadhyay about the details of her health condition, he said, “Special kind of illness, her visa said that she had also undergone treatment for it.”
She died on the way at around 12-12:30, and she reached Muzaffarpur a few hours later, he said.
The family has however, refuted the claims, stating that she was not mentally disturbed. They have also alleged that the post-mortem has not been done.
Kohinoor said, "The father of the children had already left them, and now their mother has gone too. She went so far only so she could change the lives of her children. We are very poor. We don't know how will these children live."
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