Woman falls on Metro tracks, loses both legs

In the second such incident in three years, a 28-year-old woman lost both her legs after she fell on the metro tracks at east Delhi's Welcome station on Thursday. Rhythma Kaul reports. Suicide point

In the second such incident in three years, a 28-year-old woman lost both her legs after she fell on the metro tracks at east Delhi's Welcome station on Thursday.

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Meena Chauhan, mother of a three-year-old son, was waiting to board the Dilshad Garden-Rithala train at the Welcome station when the accident took place around eight minutes past noon.

As she fell, the train rolled over her, cutting her left leg above the knee and the right one below the knee.

The train services were disrupted on the red line for about 30 minutes.

Though the Delhi Metro authorities and the Delhi Police did not rule out the suicide attempt angle, the family claimed it was an accident.

She was apparently standing too close to the tracks at a particular location where the cameras couldn't capture her.

"We are a happy family and there is no reason why she should even think of committing suicide. It has to be an accident," said Gopal Chauhan, her husband, at east Delhi's Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital where she was rushed after the incident.

However, he did admit that his wife was 'mentally disturbed' and was undergoing treatment for anxiety and depression at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences for the past one year.

"She was taking medicines regularly and there were no symptoms of late," said Badami Devi, her aunt.

Chauhan, a supervisor at a departmental store in Vishwas Nagar, received a call from the hospital around 1.30pm

"I had left for work in the morning and didn't find her home when I came for a while in the afternoon. She hadn't told me where she was going and why. Our son was with relatives at home," he said.

Doctors at the hospital operated upon the woman to stop the spread of infection.

"It will take time for the stump to heel, only after that we can think of fitting artificial limbs," said a doctor at the hospital.

In 2010, a Dehradun-based trainee journalist, Mehjabi, fell on the tracks when a man, who was in a hurry to board the train, accidentally pushed her from behind. She also lost both her legs.