The last rites of a 35-year-old woman, who was found dead at the Bhagalpur railway station in Bihar four days ago, were performed on Thursday after authorities failed to find her family, officials said.
The woman was found dead on platform number 1 of the station with her three-year-old differently abled son sleeping on her lap, unaware of her demise. The boy has been handed over to the child welfare committee (CWC) and he is now staying in a childcare home, a senior official from the Bhagalpur railway police said.
The Government Railway Police (GRP) at the Bhagalpur station found the unidentified woman and the boy on the morning of July 31. She was taken to a nearby government hospital, where doctors declared her dead.
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“The body was kept in the mortuary for 72 hours for the identification and when her identity could not be ascertained, her last rites were performed,” said GRP inspector Arvind Kumar. “An investigation is on to ascertain the identity and address of the mother and the boy who is now in a home for children.”
The railway police had put up posters of the mother and child in different parts of the city to find their family members. Officials also scanned CCTV footage from the station to ascertain how the mother-son duo reached Bhagalpur, but could not find any clue, said a railway police official.
{{/usCountry}}The railway police had put up posters of the mother and child in different parts of the city to find their family members. Officials also scanned CCTV footage from the station to ascertain how the mother-son duo reached Bhagalpur, but could not find any clue, said a railway police official.
{{/usCountry}}Officials said it seems the woman and her child had reached Bhagalpur station on Saturday and she died later that night. “She might have died from hunger as she appeared extremely malnourished,” a railway official said, requesting anonymity.
A post-mortem examination was conducted on Wednesday and officials said they are awaiting the report to ascertain the exact cause of death.
Vikram Kant Mishra, chairperson of the CWC Bhagalpur, said they will wait for a few more days for the father of the child to turn up. “If he does not turn up, the boy will be kept at the adoption centre in Nathnagar,” Mishra said.
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Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Bhagalpur railway childline coordinator, said the child was taken to a hospital where he was checked and provided medicines.
“The child is malnourished and we are taking proper care of him,” he said. “We made all possible efforts so that the child could reach his father, but no headway could be made so far.”
In a similar incident reported in May 2020, a 14-second video of a two-year-old boy trying to wake her mother up, who was already dead, at Muzaffarpur railway station had gone viral.