Title - Man crushed to death by train in Lucknow, locals strand Bagh Express for two hours

Lucknow: A man named Manjeet Sonker, 35, was crushed to death by a train while deliberately crossing a closed manned railway crossing in state capital's Nishatganj area under Mahanagar Police station in the wee hours of Thursday.

It was around 9:36 pm when Barauni-New Delhi bound Vaishali Super Fast Express was given green signal from the Badshahnagar railway station. The train had hardly moved 400 meters and had reached the railway crossing under the Nishatganj flyover when, Manjeet, in a bid to cross the track hastily, misjudged the speed of the train and was taken by its force.

Manjeet, who was a local dweller and used to sell fruits, died on the spot before few of his vendor mates saw him lying unconscious and informed the gangman Jagdeesh Prasad immediately and also informed the deceased’s family.

By then Kaifiyat Express had also crossed from the same route. But as his (Manjeet) family members came, they along with the other outraged locals started to protest against the railways. They blocked the rail track and also broke gangman's cabin. Seeing this, Jagdeesh Prasad immediately rushed to the Badshahnagar railway station and informed the Government Railway Police.

Within moments, the scene was chaotic in the area as no GRP or UP Police official had reached the spot before one hour from the time of incident. As the local Police and GRP's Station Officer NK Mishra reached the spot with heavy force, locals started shouting slogans and didn't allow the Police take the dead body for the postmortem.

They were demanding compensation for the family of the deceased and also said that victim's wife should be recruited in the railways. The locals also filled stones in the rail tracks at the point where they are interchanged. The locals also blocked the rail track by wooden planks and tricycles, while a few laid down at the track in protest.

Meanwhile, Howrah-Kathgodam bound Bagh Express was stranded at the platform number 1 of the Badshahnagar railway station. It got late by more than 2 hours due to this due to which passengers had to face tough time. Few other trains were also stranded at the Daliganj railway station due to unavailability of the track.

As per the locals, the accident took place due to low light at the point of crossing.

The police tried a number of times to pick the body of the deceased but failed each time due to massive protest of the locals.

However, with NK Mishra's (SO, GRP) intervention, the locals calmed a bit. He, as, per the orders

from VK Yadav, District Railway Magistrate (DRM) proposed all the possible help to victim's family members after which the locals allowed the Police to take the body for the postmortem.

Manjeet Sonker, who was a fruit vendor, resided in Nishatganj’s 5th lane. He has left two daughters, a son and wife to feed.

The grief stricken family was being consoled by family members and neighbours.

As per the locals, this was the fourth such incident within a year.