A tragic incident transpired on Thursday, 28 May, when the body of a 38-year-old migrant worker was found inside the toilet of a Shramik train at the Jhansi Railway Station in UP.
According to NDTV, the body of Mohan Lal Sharma, a resident of the state's Basti district, was found by the railway staff who were conducting their routine sanitisation of the train after its round trip from Gorakhpur in eastern UP.
The body lied in the toilet of the train for four days before it was found by the staff, Indian Express reported.
Sharma worked as a daily wager in Mumbai but was forced to leave the city due to the lockdown.
He managed to reach Jhansi on 23 May. Post that he was directed to a train going to Gorakhpur, which is approximately 70 kilometers from Basti, by the district administration.
After boarding the train, Sharma spoke to a relative and asked to be met at the Gorakhpur station. The relative tried to reach Sharma the next day only to find that his mobile was switched off.
The train made the journey back to Jhansi on 27 May and as the railway workers were disinfecting the coaches they found Sharma's body in one of the toilets.
The coach the body was found in had been locked for the return journey and, as per the railway authorities, was not supposed to be checked whether it was empty or not before it returned.
A relative of Sharma confirmed that he has left Mumbai on a bus on 23 May and reached Jhansi.
“This was an empty rake and empty rakes are locked. When we carried out maintenance we found the body. None of the railway doctors in any division along the train’s route received any calls that someone was ill.”Manoj Kumar Singh, Railways PRO to NDTV
The Northern Railways tweeted out that no medical assistance was sought by Sharma and that he had boarded the train after a medical screening as a part of the safety protocol being followed by the Indian Railways against COVID-19.
The police have confirmed that a post-mortem is being conducted on the deceased’s body and it will be handed over after the results of the COVID-19 tests are released.
A lot of migrant labourers aboard a Shramik train bound for UP’s Gorakhpur from Mumbai have complained about delays and trains getting diverted from their original destination.
It has been reported that the journey for some migrants have lasted more than 36 hours as the trains have been diverted by the Western Railways to avoid heavy congestion.
Some have even had to travel without food or water for long distances.
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