Bihar: Couple with three-year-old son killed after train rams car stuck on track in Punpun

PATNA: In a tragic incident, a Noida based couple along with their three and half-year-old son were killed after their car got stuck on railway track and was rammed by Patna-Ranchi Jan Shatabdi special near Pothahi railway station at Punpun in eastern Patna on Saturday morning.
The point from where the car attempted to cross the track was an illegal one made by villagers, according to police and railway authorities.
The deceased were identified as Sumit Kumar (42), his wife Neelka Bihari (36) and their son Praneet.
The spot where accident took place falls under jurisdiction of Taregana government rail police (GRP) station.
Neelka’s father Surendra Bihari Singh while talking to TOI over phone said that Sumit and Neelka lived in Noida.
“Sumit was working as an engineer with a US based firm and lived in Noida. He had his private residence at Anandpuri in Boring Road,” he said.
Singh said that Sumit was living in Patna since last one month as he was working from home.
“It was my grandson Praneet who was demanding Sumit and Neelka for last three-four days to visit nana-nani due to which they planned to visit us on Saturday,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, Taregana GRP SHO Suresh Ram said the spot where incident took place is mere a kilometre away from the residence of Sumit’s father-in-law located in Dharhara village under Punpun police station area where couple was scheduled to reach.
“Villagers had created an illegal crossing on the track from where Sumit attempted to cross. However his car got stuck on tracks. At same time Patna-Ranchi Jam Shatabdi came on track and rammed the car killing all three instantly at spot,” he said, adding, none else were injured.
SHO Ram said the car was dragged for at least 400 metres before train came to halt after application of emergency brakes. “Bodies were sent to Patna Medical College and Hospital for conducing autopsy,” he said.
Meanwhile, ECR CRPO Rajesh Kumar in a press release said attempt to illegally cross tracks at unauthorised location resulted the accident in which all three inside vehicle were killed.
He said no train passenger were affected and there was no traffic disruption on Patna-Gaya section. He said accident took place at 6.35am and train left for onwards to Gaya at 9.37am.