Woman fakes death of husband in Odisha train tragedy for compensation, lands in trouble

A woman faked the death of her husband in the deadly train crash in Odisha's Balasore, which claimed the lives of nearly 300 people, in order to gain cash compensation announced by the railways and the state government for the victims and the families of the ones who lost their lives in the incident, news agency PTI reported on Wednesday.

Gitanjali Datta of Maniabanda in Cuttack district had declared that her husband Bijay Datta had died in an accident on June 2. She had also identified a body as that of her spouse.

She got into trouble after the verification of the documents showed that the claims made by her were false.

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As per the PTI reports, the police let her go with a warning but she went into hiding fearing arrest after her husband filed a complaint against her at the Maniabandha police station.

According to the police, the couple has been living separately for the last 13 years.

Bijay has demanded strict action against Gitanjali for making an attempt to grab public money and for also faking his death.

Maniabanda police station in-charge Basant Kumar Satpathy said that the police have asked Bijay to file a complaint at Bahanaga police station in Balasore district as the incident occurred there.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary PK Jena asked the Railways and Odisha police to take strict action against people making fake claimants over bodies.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had declared Rs 5 lakh ex gratia for the family of the deceased while Indian PM Narendra Modi announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh. The Railway Ministry has announced Rs 10 lakh compensation for the families of those who lost their lives in the accident.

Here’s how the Odisha collision occurred

The Indian Railways Board has said that the horrific train accident in eastern Odisha state was due to an issue with the signal and that a passenger train, Coromandel Express, had gotten into the accident.

Addressing a press conference in the capital New Delhi, Jaya Varma Sinha, a Member of Operation and Business Development, explained how the events led to India’s deadliest train accident in 20 years.

Sinha said that the functioning of the interlocking system, prima facie, may have been part of the problem.

The railway official said that only Coromandel Express, which was travelling at a speed of around 128 kilometres per hour (128 km/h), had an accident. Sinha said the direction, route and signal were set for the Coromandel Express.

She, however, asserted that their finds are preliminary in nature, and a detailed assessment of the issue is awaited.

According to her, the accident took place near Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore, Odisha, around 7 pm (local time) on Friday.

The crash involved three trains —Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express (12862), Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express (12841), and a goods train.

“The site where the accident happened had two main lines and two loop lines on both sides,” she said.

The main lines were clear for the passage of these superfast trains and the loop lines were occupied by two goods trains.

(With inputs from agencies)

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