GAUR TO BLAME FOR HIS DEATH BY FALLING OFF TRAIN: RAILWAYS

BHOPAL: The Railways on Tuesday said Rajeev Gaur, executive president of JP Power Ventures Limited, was himself responsible for his death in a fall from a running train on Sunday.

Gaur, 48, had tried to board the Southern Express on its way towards Bhopal at Mandi Bamora station, but the door of the AC compartment was shut from inside. He clung to the door handle of the coach as the train picked up speed, but fell after 10 minutes. Railways found Gaur had tried to board a spare coach that was locked and empty, which implies his cries for help went unheard.

“Rajeev Gaur, who was supposed to board the train from Bina, tried to catch it at Mandi Bamora, where stoppage of the train is just two minutes. He could not identify his coach and instead tried to get into a spare coach, which was closed,” Bhopal-based senior circle security commissioner of Railways, AK Agnihotri, said in his report on the incident. “Further, he held on to the gate of the train, which was a risky decision taken in haste, which led to this unfortunate incident for which he, himself, was responsible,” he added.

The West Central Railway, however, has suspended Mandi Bamora station master Arvind Sahu. Gaur’s personal security officer Ramcharan Gurjar has alleged that Sahu did not pay heed to his request to stop the train.

Two locked spare AC III-tier compartments were being taken from Hazrat Nizamuddin (in Delhi) for Secunderabad station. It was one of these that Gaur tried to board. There was no passenger or attendant in the coach, the report said.

Gaur’s body was found at Kulhar station, 8km away from Mandi Bamora station. He was a cousin of Jaypee Group’s executive chairman Manoj Gaur and worked out of Bina.