Struggle to trace 17 passengers of Jnanenswari Express lingers on even after 13 yrs

At least 148 passengers of the Mumbai-bound Jnaneswari Express were killed when the train derailed on May 28, 2010

Every time 57-year-old Rajesh Kumar Bhatra crosses either the Agrasen Balika Siksha Sadan, a girl’s school at Liluah in Howrah district or the MC Kejriwal Vidyapeeth, barely a five-minute-walk from the other, reminds him of his son and daughter.

A goods train coming from the opposite direction ploughed through the bogies within minutes. (AFP file photo)

While his son Sourav was just 12 and a Class 8 student, his daughter Sneha was studying in Class 12 and 17 years old.

He lost his wife Indu and both children 13 years ago. Even though he traced his son and wife, till date the Howrah-resident is yet to find his daughter.

Bhatra continues to look for his daughter as he doesn’t want to give up.

“I have married again and now have a son. Life goes on. But the search still continues. I have recently sent a letter to the PMO seeking time from the Prime Minister so that the case can be presented before him, and we get justice. How can a passenger just go missing and the authorities are just not doing anything,” said Bhatra.

All three were passengers of coach S3 on the Jnaneswari Express, which met with an accident on May 28, 2010. The children along with their mother were travelling to Bhiwandi in Maharashtra to spend a vacation at the grandfather’s house as the summer vacation was going on.

“I saw them off at night. Early in the morning the next day, I got a call from a local resident of West Midnapore saying that the train met with an accident and my son was grievously injured. Till then, there was no trace of my wife and daughter,” Bhatra told HT, sitting at his office in Kolkata.

He rushed his son to a Kolkata hospital where he succumbed to his injuries three days later.

The search for his wife and daughter continued.

Seven months later on December 24, his wife’s body could be identified after the DNA matched with her brother.

“I got a call from Liluah police station that body number 51 has been identified as Indu Devi Bhatra and I was asked to collect the body from a morgue in Kolkata. Her last rites were performed on December 26. But till date there is no trace of my daughter,” he said.

At least 148 passengers of the Mumbai-bound Jnaneswari Express were killed when the train derailed.

A goods train coming from the opposite direction ploughed through the bogies within minutes leaving over 200 passengers injured.

But the bodies of 17 passengers including Sneha, could not be identified till date.

The family members continue to visit courts and government offices for their death certificates.

Others too had a similar story.

“I was five years old when I lost my father Prasenjit Atta. Mother told me that he was going to Bhusawal in Maharashtra for some work. He was the only earning member of the family. All these years my mother has been fighting the legal battle as his body couldn’t be identified. She had to go to Jhargram court, more than 150 km away, for the case sometimes. Now I am fighting it,” said Poulami Atta, the victim’s daughter.

Juthika, Poulami’s mother suffered a stroke in March 2019 and was paralysed.

She died in April last year. Poulami has now taken up a job and now stays with her grandmother.

Surendra Kumar Singh, a resident of Salt Lake near Kolkata, lost four of his family members and relatives in that accident.

Two of them, his wife and elder son, are untraceable till date.

“My wife Nilam, sons Rahul (17 and Rohit (15) along with my niece Khusboo were travelling on that train. They were going to attend a marriage ceremony of a relative. All four died. While the bodies of my younger son and niece were identified, I have still not received the bodies of my elder son and wife. They are still untraceable,” Singh told HT.

HT reached out to South Eastern Railway but there was no response. The copy will be updated as and when we receive a response.

On June 5, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said that she had handed over the probe to the CBI but till date there has been no breakthrough in the case.

“As railway minister, I had given CBI the responsibility to probe the Jnaneswari Express accident, but there has not been any headway in the probe even after 13 years later,” Banerjee had said.

She was the railway minister in the UPA government between 2009 and 2011. The investigation was handed over to the CBI in June 2010.

In March this year, a division bench of the Calcutta high court granted bail to 11 persons who were arrested by the CBI in connection with the accident and were in judicial custody.

In November last year, six other accused were granted bail.

HT is yet to receive a response from CBI on the latest developments in the case.