Mystery shrouds death of a 27-year-old national-level fencing champion who died after coming under the wheels of Kansganj-Mathura passenger train at Sikandra Rao railway station on last Tuesday.
The family members alleged that the victim was pushed off a moving train by railway police personnel in Hathras district following which he died. However, the railway police officials denied the claims and said that the victim died due to his own negligence but they still registered a case and were making probe. No action has been so far that against the accused constables.
As per the FIR registered with the cops of the Government Railway Police (GRP), it was alleged that Hoshiyar Singh, national level fencing champion was travelling with his mother, wife and his 10-month-old child in Kasganj-Mathura passenger train on last Tuesday. The athelete’s younger brother Munesh Kumar Singh said all of them were returning home to Mathura after attending a function at Patiyali block in Kasganj district and had boarded the passenger train around noon. “While the ladies sat in the women’s coach with the baby,
my brother was traveling in the general coach. My sister-in-law complained of dizziness and my mother phoned my brother,”
Munesh said. He claimed that his brother had alighted at the Sikandra
Rao station, 40 kms from Aligarh, to meet his wife when two GRP constables stopped his brother from entering the women’s coach. “My brother pleaded that his wife was unwell, but they would not listen. They asked for Rs 200,” he alleged. The athelete’s wife further alleged that the police came and asked her husband what he was doing in the ladies’ coach. “They pushed him and he got stuck between the train and
platform,” she claimed. The family members besides naming the two constables, Rajesh Kumar and Ramvilas, had also accused the Ticket Traveler Examiner (TTE), Vivek Gupta.
However, SP (Railways) Agra, Gopesh Nath Khanna claimed that though they registered a case in this regard but the probe pointed that the victim stepped out of the train to fill water bottle. As the train started moving, Hoshiyar Singh, rushed and tried to catch the train when his foot slipped and he went under the train after sleeping through the platform. Khanna said the victim died on the spot. He said that even the railway authorities stopped the train immediately, get the body out of the wheels and then moved the train further after more than half an hour.
Khanna said that in presence of all senior railway and police officers, no one made above charges but later the family suddenly started accusing the cops as well as the TTE. He said that prime facie the charges seems to be fabricated but still they were probing the matter and if any evidences would come out which pointed the role of the cops than necessary criminal proceedings would be made. In 2005, Singh had won a bronze medal in the under-17 national championship held in Kerala.
It may be mentioned that in 2011, national-level athlete, volleyball player Arunima, was thrown off a moving train by robbers and lost her right leg in the incident.