Man dies after fall from moving train, passengers allege emergency chain failure
A Jharkhand man died after falling from the moving Brahmaputra Mail near Raninagar in Jalpaiguri. Co-passenger claims over a failed chain pull and delayed response have drawn scrutiny.
A 24-year-old man from Jharkhand died after falling from a moving train in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on early Sunday morning, triggering allegations from co-passengers that the emergency chain failed to stop the locomotive.
The incident occurred around 6.20 am when Chandan Kumar Mandal, who was travelling on the Brahmaputra Mail, fell from the running train near Raninagar station. He was accompanied by his sister at the time of the incident.
According to officials, Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel recovered Mandal from the tracks near Raninagar station and rushed him to Jalpaiguri Super Speciality Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
His body was later handed over to the family after postmortem formalities.
Following the incident, Mandal's sister got down at Kokrajhar station, where her relatives reside, before travelling to Jalpaiguri.
A video recorded by a co-passenger and now widely circulating on social media claims that passengers pulled the emergency chain in an attempt to stop the train, but it did not halt. The video also alleged that neither the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) nor the railway helpline responded, leaving the victim's sister pleading for help as fellow passengers tried to console her.
The footage, which shows the sister crying inconsolably, has sparked outrage online and raised concerns over passenger safety and emergency response mechanisms in the railways.
However, officials have contested some of these claims. The RPF inspector at Jalpaiguri Road station denied that the emergency chain was pulled, stating that "the train would have stopped if it had been activated".
"We received information about a man lying on the railway track, following which our team, along with GRP personnel, took him to the hospital," he said.
Investigating officer Mahadev Roy confirmed that the victim was travelling with his sister but noted that no formal complaint has been filed by the family with either the GRP or RPF. "An Unnatural Death case has been initiated, and the matter is being processed accordingly," he said.