Western Railway official falls into platform gap, dies

A Western Railway (WR) officer died after he fell into the gap between the platform and train at Boisar station on Wednesday night. Ashish Kumar Chaudhary, 34, was the assistant station master of Vangaon railway station.

Chaudhary had gone to Boisar with his wife Sugandha and his two daughters for some shopping. It was, in fact, the Chaudharys' wedding anniversary. They came to the station around 10.30pm to board the first-class compartment of Mumbai Central-Valsad fast passenger train. While Chaudhary managed to send his wife and daughters inside the packed coach, he himself failed to get in. He slipped and fell into the gap between the platform and the train and got crushed under the wheels.

Chaudhary's wife and children didn't know what had happened as the train moved on. The Government Railway Police (GRP) had informed some other relative of Chaudhary about the incident. "Chaudhary's wife fell unconscious when she came to know what had happened to her husband. She was admitted for treatment on Thursday," said a Palghar GRP official.

Ravindra Naik, senior police inspector of Palghar GRP, said: "We have registered a case of accidental death. We took Choudhary's body to the primary health centre for post mortem. It was handed over to the family members after the procedure."

WR sources said that Chaudhary was about to be promoted to the position of station master. He was serving the WR since 2010.

The Chaudhary family resides in Vangaon railway colony.