Woman fakes husband's death in Odisha accident to get lakhs. What happened next?

Gitanjali Datta said her husband Bijay Datta had died in the June 2 train accident and even pretended that she identified a body as that of her spouse.

A woman who declared her husband had died in the horrific train crash in Odisha last week - in which nearly 300 people were killed - so she could claim lakhs in compensation offered by the central and state governments faces a police complaint filed by the husband and has gone into hiding, news agency PTI reported Wednesday afternoon.

Body of the injured were taken away from the crash site.(ANI File Photo)

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She stood to gain ₹17 lakh - ₹10 lakh from the railways ministry, ₹5 lakh from chief minister Naveen Patnaik's office and ₹2 lakh from prime minister Narendra Modi's office.

Gitanjali Datta of Odisha's Cuttack district had said her husband Bijay Datta had died in the June 2 train accident and even pretended she identified a body as that of her spouse.

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Her claim was found to be false after a verification of documents.

Bijay Datta has demanded stringent action against his wife - both for attempting to grab public money and also faking his death. The police officer in-charge of the Maniabanda Station, where the complaint was first lodged, has referred the husband to the Bahanaga Station in the state's Balasore district as the three-way train crash took place there.