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Hugs, kisses before NYC subway tragedy: New details emerge in Malaika Chitre, Navam Kaul deaths
The duo killed by a subway train in New York last week were reportedly hugging and kissing on the platform before ending up on the tracks.
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New details have emerged in the case of Malaika Chitre and her Nepalese-origin friend, Navam Kaul, who were killed after being struck by a subway train in New York City, United States, earlier this week.
A report by the New York Post, citing sources, said the duo were hugging and kissing on the platform shortly before the tragedy. The two were reportedly seen embracing moments before they were struck by the train.
According to sources cited in the report, Kaul appeared to lose his balance and fall onto the tracks, hitting his head in the process. Seeing him in distress, Chitre reportedly climbed down onto the tracks to help him.
A purported CCTV footage also captured both of them sitting on the tracks shortly before the train arrived. The footage and witness accounts are now part of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
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The NYP report stated that the train operator did not have enough time to apply the brakes and prevent the collision.
Investigators, meanwhile, do not believe the incident was a case of double suicide, according to the sources cited by the New York Post.
Who were Malaika Chitre and Navam Kaul?
The duo were longtime friends who grew up in similar bucolic corners of Central Jersey suburbia, just a few miles apart, the report added.
According to their LinkedIn profiles, both graduated from Rutgers University two years ago.
Kaul's childhood friend's father, Rajnikant Pipalia, noted that he and Chitre grew up in "the same world" and were both part of the same South Asian social group, the report added.
Chitre got a job as a quality operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals around a year ago. She was studying to become a doctor of pharmacy at Temple University, according to her LinkedIn profile.
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Kaul had been working as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg in NYC for nearly a year, according to his LinkedIn profile. A source from within the company, cited by the New York Post, said he was a contract worker whose employment ended in May.
Another report in the Daily Mail said that Kaul grew up in Sayreville, New Jersey, where his parents had moved from Nepal about three decades ago.
