Child tries to wake mother lying dead at railway platform

A heart-rending video clip showed a two-and-half-yearold child trying to wake up his mother, whose body was under a shroud on a platform at the Muzzaffarpur station in Bihar.

MUZAFFARPUR:The woman’s body is in a makeshift shroud on a railway platform; her two-and-half year old son, unaware that his mother his dead, keeps trying to wake her up. At one point, he puts part of the shroud over his own face, and then takes it off playfully. In the background, the loudspeaker announces the arrival of a Shramik Special.

This heart-rending video clip barely 14 seconds long, went viral on social media on Wednesday. The incident is believed to have taken place on Monday at Muzzaffarpur station in Bihar.

On May 25, a Shramik Special from Gujarat ferrying 1650 migrants from Ahmedabad pulled into Muzaffarpur at 3.30 pm. Among them was Arvina Khatoon, a 35-year-old resident of Srikol Marandanga in Katihar, who had passed away hours before the train reached her home district of Katihar, which was the final stop of the train.

Accompanied by her two children, including a 4-year-old, her sister, brother-in-law, Mohammed Wazir, and their seven-year old child, Khatoon had reportedly died at noon. Her body was placed on the platform and covered with a shroud soon after the train reached the station. It remained there for well over an hour.

“When the train reached Muzaffarpur railway station, we were informed about the body of a woman in the train. We took the body out and asked for her relatives. Mohammed Wazir came forward and provided details. They were headed to Katihar. Wazir also told us that the woman was unwell for four days before catching the train. She died in the train by 12 noon on Monday,” deputy superintendent of the government railway police, Ramakant Upadhyay said.

According to Indian railways protocol on deaths in trains, the railway police takes charge of the body, and a post-mortem is carried out. However, Khatoon’s body was not sent for post-mortem, district officials said.

A release issued by Muzaffarpur public relation officer Kamal Singh said Khatoon’s death was declared a natural death by a team of doctors deputed at the railway station to monitor incoming migrants and a post-mortem was not carried out.

At 5.30 pm, an ambulance took the family and Khatoon’s body to their village where her father Mir Islam lives. She was buried on Tuesday. As the video of her body lying on the platform went viral, several remarked that she died due to hunger and dehydration -a charge that the railway authorities were quick to dismiss.

“The woman’s family members have said she was already unwell. Request all not to spread fake news,” said Rajesh Kumar, spokesperson of east central railway. He said a doctor attached to the east central railways also examined the woman’s body.

“She was ill before boarding the train,” Wazir, a labourer who worked in a textile factory in Surat, told HT.