Two persons were killed and three were injured on Thursday near Mumbai’s Sandhurst Road railway station after they were hit by a suburban train while walking on the tracks, The Indian Express reported.

The incident took place in the evening after services were halted for about an hour amid a flash strike called by employees of the Central Railway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. This led to disruptions in operations in sections of the suburban train network, causing passengers to deboard.

An unidentified Government Railway Police official told the newspaper that the five passengers – 19-year-old Hailey Mohmaya, Khushbu, 45-year-old Suryakant Naik, 62-year-old Yafiza Chougule and 22-year-old son Kaif – were onboard a train headed towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

No trains had left the terminus for nearly an hour when the five of them stepped onto the tracks, the official said. However, this was when the strike was called off and a fast train bound for Ambernath hit the group.

All five were taken to JJ Hospital, where Mohmaya and Naik were declared dead.

Khushbu, who was Mohmaya’s paternal aunt, sustained fractures to her hand and was shifted to a private hospital. Chougule and her son Kaif were also shifted to a private hospital in South Mumbai.

“Yafiza’s condition is critical and she is unconscious while Kaif sustained minor injuries,” the newspaper quoted the official as saying.

The official said that Chougule and Kaif had decided to walk to a relative’s home at Sandhurst Road after waiting in the stalled train, The Indian Express reported.

Mohmaya and Khushbu, who were “suffocating in the crowded compartment”, also decided to deboard, followed by Naik, the official said.

“They started walking on the track to go to the other side,” the newspaper quoted the official as saying. “However, around the same time the strike was called off and the Ambarnath-bound train hit them.”

The strike

The strike on Thursday was called by the workers to demand the withdrawal of the case registered against two Central Railways engineers for alleged negligence that purportedly caused a train accident near Mumbra in June, The Times of India reported.

Four persons had died and several were injured in the accident between the Mumbra and Diva railway stations on June 9. The protesting workers on Thursday said that they would not end their strike until the first information report against the engineers was withdrawn.

No local train had departed the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus station, among the busiest in the city, since about 5.45 pm, according to reports. The station caters to the Central and Harbour lines.

Services resumed at around 6.30 pm, The Indian Express reported.

Videos posted on social media showed commuters stranded at Currey Road and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus station stations on the Central line during rush hour.

On Tuesday, the Government Railway Police filed an FIR against the two engineers, among others, The Indian Express reported.

The two engineers, Assistant Divisional Engineer Vishal Dolas and Senior Section Engineer Samar Yadav, have been accused of ignoring warnings, leaving the tracks vulnerable and neglecting crucial repairs that allegedly led to the accident, India Today reported.

The railway staffers had replaced a piece of track involved in the incident four days before the accident on June 9, but allegedly left it unwelded, which led to the tragedy, PTI quoted the FIR as saying.

The uneven track caused one of the trains to tilt towards the other train travelling in the opposite direction. As a result, some commuters travelling on the trains’ footboards fell down after getting entangled, which led to the deaths.

The two engineers were booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to causing death by negligence, endangering life, personal safety, and holding government employees accountable for offences related to the railways.

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