17 dead in mishaps on Mumbai rail division of WR, CR: Cops

Seventeen persons were killed Thursday in separate mishaps on the suburban network of Western and Central Railways, the railway police said.

The Kalyan and Vasai railway police station area saw the maximum of three deaths each, officials informed.

"Of the three deaths that occurred in the jurisdiction of Kalyan railway police station, two were track deaths that took place at Asangaon and between Shahad and Kasara. The deceased were 35 and 45 years of age respectively," said senior inspector Dinkar Pingle of Kalyan railway police station.

In the third incident, the body of a 64-year-old man, identified as Madhusudhan Nene, was found near the ladies coach of a train at Kalyan, he informed.

In Vasai, the three deaths included that of a couple who allegedly committed suicide by jumping in front of a train, said senior inspector V M Chowgule.

"The couple, in their mid-twenties and as yet unidentified, jumped in front of a speeding train at Nallasopara. In the third incident, a man fell off the train at Vasai and died," Chowgule said.

An Right to Information plea filed by social activist Samir Zaveri, in 2017, had revealed that 3,014 people had died on the railway network of Mumbai division of WR and CR.

While a major chunk of these deaths are due to people crossing tracks, a large part also consists of people falling off overcrowded suburban trains, slipping between the gap of the train and the platform as well as suicides, officials said.