Sixteen migrant workers sleeping on rail tracks while returning to Madhya Pradesh were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra on Friday, police said.
The Railways announced a comprehensive probe into theaccident which took place at 5.15 am near Karmad, around 30 km from Aurangabad.
Those killed and the four other migrant workers who survivedwere all male, officials said.
A viral video clip from the scene of the tragedy shows thebodies of migrant workers lying on the tracks and nearby with their meagrepersonal belongings scattered around.
Aurangabad SP Mokshada Patil told PTI that three of the foursurvivors had tried in vain to wake up their colleagues who had slept on thetrack after a overnight walk from Jalna, around 40 km from the accident spot.
The workers were walking to Bhusawal from Jalna along railtracks, while returning to their home state Madhya Pradesh, an official at theKarmad police station said.
They were sleeping on rail tracks due to exhaustion whenthey were run over by the goods train coming from Jalna, he said.
“The labourers, working in a steel factory in Jalna,left for their home state on foot last night. They came till Karmad and sleptoff on the tracks as they were tired,” another police official said.
Three of the four survivors were sleeping some distance awayfrom the rail tracks, police said.
The migrant workers, rendered jobless due to thecoronavirus-enforced lockdown and desperate to go to their native places, werewalking along the rail tracks apparently to escape police attention.
The survivors had frantically raised alarm to alert theirgroup members sleeping on tracks about the approaching freight train, policesaid.
Chilling details emerged about the tragedy as survivorsrecounted the events.
“A group of 20 stranded labourers started walking fromJalna. They decided to take rest and most of them lied on rail tracks. Three ofthem were taking rest in a nearby plain area. After some time, these three sawa goods train coming and immediately raised the alarm but it wentunheard,” Patil said.
“I had a word with the survivors. They started walkingfrom Jalna and tried to reach Bhusaval on earlier night which is around 30-40km away from the place of the accident (near Karmad near Aurangabad),” theIPS officer said.
“The three survivors, who were resting a little away,tried to wake up the people sleeping on the tracks by frantically shouting, butthat provide futile as the train ran over them,” the police officer said.
“This is an unfortunate incident. Out of the 20 people,16 died, one is injured and three are with us. A case will be registered at theKarmad police station,” she added.
Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh governments announcedfinancial aid of Rs 10 lakh – Rs 5 lakh each – to families of the deceased.
The victims, aged between 20 and 35 years, hailed fromUmaria and Shahdol districts of MP, and worked at a steel company in Jalna, thepolice officer said.”They left without informing the company orthe district administration,” he said.