Mumbai: Feeling suffocated inside the compartment of a local train that had been stalled for 40 minutes during evening peak hour on Thursday caused senior citizen Hafiza Chougle and her son Kaif to get down on the tracks near Sandhurst Road station. The duo was struck by another oncoming train while walking on the tracks and suffered serious injuries.Several passengers began hopping onto the tracks on Thursday evening after an agitation by a Central Railway workers’ union at CSMT paralysed services for an hour. Two of them, Haley Momaiya, 19, and Suryakant Naik, 52, lost their lives from being struck by a train.Naik, a Nagpur resident, was in Mumbai to visit his daughter and son-in-law at Mira Road. His son Amit claimed his body from the JJ Hospital early on Friday and returned to Nagpur. The family declined comment.“A criminal case must be lodged against the protestors for endangering lives,” said Kaif, 22, from his bed at a Byculla hospital where he has been admitted with multiple injuries, including a shoulder fracture. His mother, 62-year-old Hafiza, is in the ICCU of the same hospital and has been administered dozens of stitches on her head. She is unconscious and on a ventilator.The Chougles were to visit their relatives at Sandhurst Road on Thursday for a ritual following a death in the family. They left their Mumbra residence and took a train to Byculla station. They then changed trains to head to Sandhurst Road station.“The train halted for 40 minutes. I checked the m-indicator app which showed that an agitation was on on CR. No other trains were moving around us. My mother was feeling suffocated in the ladies compartment and was having difficulty in mobility due to a hip replacement surgery. For her sake, I got off the train and helped her down onto the tracks,” said Kaif.Just before they could reach Sandhurst Road station, a fast train came out of nowhere hurtling towards them. “I dragged my mother away from the tracks and the train hit my back. I was thrown off from the impact and lost consciousness. My mother landed in a gutter and hit her head. When I came to, about 15 minutes later, I took the help of fellow passengers to get her out of the gutter,” he said.At Sandhurst Road station, stretchers were not readily available to carry the victims to hospital. “A young woman had died… I saw the body covered in blood,” said Kaif. The Chougles were moved to JJ Hospital, but Kaif refused admission as his family did not find the hospital to be equipped. The duo was moved to a private hospital at Byculla.Kaif’s sister Naayab said that they haven’t been contacted by any Central Railway official since the incident. “There had been no announcement inside the train on Thursday as to why it had been stalled for so long,” Naayab said.
