Lack of foot-bridge kills 2 at Whitefield

January 3, 2013

railways

Bangalore, Jan 2: Speeding trains mowed down two young people - a medico and a software engineer - trying to cross the rail track in the absence of a footbridge at the Whitefield railway station, setting off a public protest and disruption of train services on Wednesday.

The accidents occurred within hours of each other on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. On Tuesday night, 20-year-old Vini Sanki Bamoon from Meghalaya was trying to cross the railway tracks with her three friends. While the others had crossed, Bamoon was hit by a speeding train (Chennai-Bangalore Express) and killed on the spot.

Bamoonwas pursuing medicine MVJ Medical College, Hosakote. She was a paying guest in Whitefield.

Another death

Hours after this accident, Bipin Kumar Goutham, 26, a software engineer with a leading IT firm near Whitefield, was fatally knocked down by Lalbagh Express, early on Wednesday. He was staying with colleagues Vishnu and Shvanag. The trio were returning home after night shift. As Vishnu and Shvanag crossed the railway lines, Bipin, hailing from Delhi, was mowed down by the train.

The deaths sparked off protests with around 4,000 people, including rail passengers, residents of the area and civil society groups, blocking trains at the Whitefield railway station for more than five hours from 7 am to 12 noon.

Residents of the area claimed that at least two such accidents occur every month while people cross the tracks to reach a bus stop as the nearby flyover is always choked with traffic and a road detour meant walking three kilometres.

S Muniswamy, president of the Karnataka Jnanandolana Sanghatane, which spearheaded the protests, said that in the recent months, the station witnessed more than 15 such accidents. The protesters said there was no overbridge at the station, which was the main reason behind the accidents. “Our immediate demand is for a railway over-bridge to be built so that commuters won’t have to cross the tracks,” he said.

When the agitation intensified, Sandeep Mehra, Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM), South Western Railways, visited the spot and interacted with the protesters.

“We have analysed the situation and facilities at the station and surrounding approach. The number of people crossing the track along this stretch has increased.

We have had talks with the agitators and promised to start work on the overbridge immediately. Safety of train passengers as well as those crossing the railway track is the major concern and we are committed to it,” he said.

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Agencies
January 6,2020

New Delhi, Jan 6: A blind student who is pursuing research in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was also attacked by the mob that perpetrated violence in the University yesterday.

"I thought that the mob which came yesterday would disperse after raising a few slogans but they indulged in violence. They were targeting ABVP students. They beat me with sticks and rods. When I went to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, I came to know that there are many other injured students there," Surya Prakash, the blind student pursuing research in the University told ANI.

"I talked to my family members. They are really worried about the situation here. I qualified in the National Eligibility Test (NET) last year but I want to study and hence I am continuing research in JNU. How can we do anything in this atmosphere of fear? I am receiving calls from anonymous numbers threatening me not to come in front of the media. They are saying that as I am blind, I would become the face of this case," he added.

Another PhD student, Santosh Bhagat recounted his experience.

"In the evening at around 7 pm, many masked men entered the hostel. They had rods and sticks in their hands. We tried to go out but the attackers had entered the premises by then. I locked my room from inside but the attackers broke the door and entered my room and attacked me. They pushed me from the first floor and I fell down and sustained an injury. Later, I took shelter at one of the Professor's flat. Later, I was taken to the AIIMS Trauma Cantre," Bhagat said.

On Sunday evening, more than 30 students of the university, including JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh, were injured and were taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre after a masked mob entered the JNU and attacked them and professors with sticks and rods.

The JNU administration and political leaders, cutting across political lines, condemned the attack on students and urged the police to take action against the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, the situation remained tense but peaceful outside JNU on Monday morning as the university guards maintained a strict vigil at the gate, checking I-cards of all those entering the university.

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News Network
May 19,2020

Bareilly (UP), May 19: Samajwadi leader Chhotelal Diwakar and his son, Sunil Diwakar, were shot dead in broad daylight in Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. The entire incident was caught on camera.

The murder was apparently a fallout of a dispute over laying of a road under MGNREGA.

Chhotelal Diwakar had contested the 2017 assembly elections on a Samajwadi Party ticket.

Superintendent of Police, (SP), Sambhal, Yamuna Prasad, said, "Some work was being carried out under MGNREGA due to which some dispute happened. Two people have been shot dead. We will reach the spot of the incident to find more details."

According to his family members, Diwakar and his son had gone for a walk in the fields when the assailants came on a motorbike and after a brief altercation, shot them dead. They fled on foot, leaving their motorbike behind.

A large number of SP workers reached the village soon after the news of the double murder spread.

SP Yamuna Prasad who reached the spot that falls under Behjoi police station, soon after the murders, said that a manhunt has been launched for the assailants. He said that further investigations were underway and the bodies have been sent for post mortem.

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News Network
June 6,2020

Kota (Rajasthan), Jun 6: A 14-year-old boy allegedly hanged himself to death on early Saturday morning shortly after he stopped playing PUBG throughout the night and went to sleep, said police. 

Railway Colony police station’s in-charge Hansraj Meena said the boy, a class 9 student and son of an Army man, was found hanging from the grill of the ventilator in his bedroom on early Saturday morning. 

Meena said according to the boy’s family members, the boy had downloaded the gaming programme on his mother’s mobile phone only three days back but had been playing the game virtually continuously for the last three days. 

He kept on playing the game till 3 am in a room in which his brother was studying, said Meena, adding the boy went to adjoining to sleep after that. His body was found hanging from the ventilator’s grill in the morning, he said, adding the boy was rushed to MBS Hospital, where he was declared “brought dead”. 

No suicide note was recovered in the case, the SHO said. The boy lived in Gandhi Colony in the city along with his mother and brother, while his father, a Tamil Nadu native and Army man, is currently posted in Arunachal Pradesh. The boy’s body has been kept in hospital’s morgue for the postmortem, the SHO said.

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