JALGAON: The death toll in the Jalgaon train accident has gone up to 13 with the recovery of a headless body along the railway tracks, police said on Thursday.
Some passengers of the Mumbai-bound Pushpak Express, who got off the train after an alarm chain-pulling incident, were run over by the Karnataka Express heading from Bengaluru to Delhi on the adjacent tracks in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district on Wednesday evening.
“Of the 13, we have identified eight bodies so far, including two from their Aadhaar cards,” Special Inspector General of Police Dattatraya Karale told PTI.
The eight identified deceased include four hailing from Nepal, Jalgaon district information officer Yuvraj Patil told PTI.
Out of the 15 persons injured in the incident, 10 were currently undergoing treatment – nine at the Pachora civil hospital and one at a medical facility in Jalgaon city- while the others who suffered minor injuries were discharged, he said.
Meanwhile, the Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express reached the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), its final destination in the Maharashtra capital, at around 1.20 am on Thursday, a railway spokesperson said.
The Central Railway’s general manager and other senior officials also reached the accident spot at night and inspected the site, he said.
They also visited the hospitals where the injured persons were taken for treatment.
The tragedy unfolded on Wednesday evening when passengers onboard the Pushpak Express, fearing a blaze, hastily jumped onto the adjacent tracks and were run over by the oncoming Karnataka Express, officials earlier said.
The accident took place between Maheji and Pardhade stations near Pachora town in north Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, when the Pushpak Express halted after someone pulled the chain at around 4.45 pm on Wednesday, Central Railway officials said.
Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, however, denied that any spark or fire inside the coach caused passengers to pull the alarm.
In a video message from Davos in Switzerland, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said, “Some passengers in the train mistakenly assumed that smoke is coming out of the train and they jumped. Unfortunately, they were run over by another train.”
The CM announced a financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of the kin of the passengers who died in the tragedy.
The Railway Board separately announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1.5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased, Rs 50,000 for grievous wounds and Rs 5,000 for simple injuries.
