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Commuters killed in bizarre mishap

Eight commuters were killed and one seriously injured last night's in a bizarre mishap when they were allegedly hit by concrete sleepers between Vasai and Nalla Sopara. The commuters were from different local trains running on the suburban section of the Western Railway's Borivili-Virar stretch.

A spokesperson and the superintendent of railway police confirmed that the victims were from different compartments of more than one train. They were apparently sitting on the footboard with their legs hanging out and were hit by the cement slippers stacked two days ago on the side of the track.

The incident came to light only after motormen of two passing trains sighted one body each lying on tracks between Vasai and Nalla Sopara. They reported the matter to the station master of Nalla Sopara.

Later, a search team found five more bodies. One person died in the casualty ward of a hospital.

All those dead had fatal head injuries due to the severe impact of their falls.

The spokesperson said Divisional Railway Manager Pankaj Malviya was also holding an inquiry into the accident.

Six bodies have already been identified so far. A Western Railways press release listed those dead as Milan Ramniklal Gandhi, Amarnath Nandi, Hitesh Bharatbhai Soni, Anil Sharma, Parin Mansukhbhai Shah and Vijay Vikram Parmar.

The next of kin of the dead have been given ex-gratia payment of Rs 15,000 each and the injured, Rs 5000. Two other commuters who had received minor injuries were treated and allowed to go home. Minister of State for Railway Ram Naik, who represents the Bombay north Lok Sabha constituency, visited the site of the accident this morning and announced the ex-gratia payment.

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