PUNE: Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said that the rumour which led passengers to jump off a train and be run over by another train in North Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district on Wednesday was triggered by a tea seller of the pantry car and was spread in the coaches by two passengers.
Both these passengers, who claimed to have spread the rumours, also sustained injuries and are currently undergoing treatment. They have been identified as Udal Kumar and his brother-in-law Vijay Kumar, who hail from Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh. While interacting with the media in Pune on Thursday, Ajit Pawar informed that Udal Kumar and Vijay Kumar were travelling from Lucknow to Mumbai in the Pushpak Express for job purposes.
Speaking about the incident, Pawar said, “Udal Kumar and Vijay Kumar were travelling in a general coach of the Pushpak Express. They were sitting at the upper berth of that coach when a tea seller of that train’s pantry car came shouting about a fire in the train. Both of these passengers spread that rumour in the coach, after which panic spread among passengers and some of them started jumping off the moving train.”
“One of the passengers pulled a chain to stop the train. After the train stopped, more passengers got off the train, and that was when some of them came under the Bengaluru-New Delhi Karnataka Express, which was coming from the other side on an adjacent track,” the deputy chief minister added.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the accident has reached 13. “Out of the 13 deceased persons, the identity of 10 has been ascertained, but three deceased, which include two women and one man, are yet to be identified. Apart from that, ten passengers have sustained injuries and are currently undergoing treatment. The govt will bear the cost of their treatment. Udal Kumar and Vijay Kumar, responsible for spreading rumours, have also sustained injuries,” Pawar said.