New Delhi, June 13: A man in India is still searching for his daughter who went missing in a train accident 13 years ago. In May 2010, the Dnaneshwari Express carrying a family of Rajesh Kumar Bhatra derailed, killing 148 passengers.
The bodies of 17 passengers, including Bhatra’s daughter, were not found in the incident. The investigation was handed over to the CBI in June 2010, but there was no progress in the case. They have sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking for justice and attention.
All these three were traveling in S3 coach of Dnaneshwari Express. It crashed on May 28, 2010. As it was summer vacation, the children used to travel to Bhiwandi in Maharashtra to spend vacation with their mother at their grandfather’s house.
57-year-old Rajesh Kumar Bhatra remembers his missing son and daughter every time he passes Agrasen Balika Shiksha Sadan or MC Kejriwal Vidyapeeth, a girls’ school in Lilua in Howrah district.
His 12-year-old son Sourav was a class 8 student while his 17-year-old daughter Sneha was studying in class 12 when the incident took place. Howrah resident Rajesh Kumar Bhatra lost his wife Sindhu and two children 13 years ago. Although he has traced his son and wife, his daughter has not been found so far. But Bhatra keeps searching, not wanting to give up her daughter.
I saw them at night. Early the next morning, I got a call from a local resident of West Midnapore. He said that the train met with an accident and the son was seriously injured. Till then, there was no trace of my wife and daughter,” Bhatra lamented sitting in his office in Kolkata.
Bhatra took his son to a Kolkata hospital. But there he died three days later. But the search for his wife and daughter continues. After 7 months on December 24, he informed that his wife’s body could be identified after the DNA was matched with his brother’s.
I received a call from Lilua police station today that body number 51 has been identified as Devi Bhatra. I was told to collect the dead body from the mortuary in Kolkata. Her funeral was held on December 26. But so far no trace of my daughter has been found, he said.
At least 148 passengers of the Mumbai-bound Jnaneshwari Express were killed when the train derailed. More than 200 passengers were injured as a result of the goods train coming from the opposite direction rammed through the carriages within a few minutes. The dead bodies of 17 passengers including Sneha in the incident have not been identified till date.
Family members of train accident victims continue to visit courts and government offices for their death certificates. Many of them are in the same situation as Rajesh Kumar Bhatra. I was five years old when I lost my father Prasenjit Atta. The mother said that she was going to Bhuswal in Maharashtra for some work. He was the only earning member of the family. My mother has been fighting a legal battle for many years because her body could not be identified. Sometimes he had to go to the Jhargram court, 150 km away, for the case. Now I am fighting against it,” said Paulami Atta, daughter of the victim.
