Halisahar, Jan. 18: A municipal worker whose legs got severed while he tried to illegally cross rail tracks today thrust his head in the way of a second oncoming train minutes later and died.
Laltu Paul, a 39-year-old casual worker of Halisahar municipality, was conscious after he lost his legs ankle downwards.
Eyewitnesses said after realising what had happened to him, Laltu shouted in despair: “I want to die…. What is the use of living like this.”
Local residents said it was around 8.30am, when Laltu, a resident of Subhash Sarani in Halisahar, was approaching the station platform crossing the railway tracks. Laltu did not take the railway overbridge about 60 metres away.
He apparently misjudged the distance of an approaching Sealdah-bound Santipur local and tried to run across the tracks but was hit by the train.
Local people saw Laltu fall and cry out and rushed and tried to drag him away from the tracks. But it was not easy.
Eyewitness Arindam Sarkar said: “Those who had rushed towards the man found that removing him with one of his ankles hanging from some tissues was tough. The injured man was crying and saying he wanted to end his life as there was no point living like this. Some of the people ran to the cabin room so that the next train expected to arrive minutes later could be stopped. Time was short. The cabin man told those who had approached him that it was the duty of the Kanchrapara station to put up a signal at Halisahar station to stop the train.”
As the attempt to rescue the man was on, the second train approached. The people who were with the man had to jump aside at the last moment leaving Laltu alone for some time.
“Laltu lunged at the train, His head smashed and he died,” Sarkar said.
The incident led to tension at Halisahar station as angry passengers blocked services for about one-and-a-half hours from 9.05am in protest against the cabin man’s supposed refusal to help.
Giridhari Paul, the elder brother of Laltu, later lodged a complaint against Halisahar cabin man Sujit Adhikary with the divisional railway manager (Sealdah) through the station manager of Halisahar, and demanded action against him for his “inhuman behaviour”, besides compensation for Laltu’s family as he was the only earning member.
Laltu left behind his wife, Mithu, a homemaker and a five-year-old daughter.
Railway officials at the DRM office in Sealdah said they had no information about the “request” of the local people to stop the train. “We have no such information about any incident of an injured man committing suicide. We only know that a man was run over while crossing the railway tracks in an unauthorised manner,” a senior official said.
The officer, however, refused to comment on whether it was technically possible for the cabin man to stop the train.
A senior railway officer on condition of anonymity, said: “The cabin man could have stopped the train using his control as done during an emergency. He could have turned off the signals at the platform that would have definitely stopped the train. The railway should sympathetically see the case and examine the role of the cabin man.”
Additional reporting by Soumen Bhattacharjee
