Claimants must prove the deceased was a bona fide passenger and that the incident was an untoward incident under the Railways Act to be entitled to compensation.

JUDGEMENT

1. This application has been filed under Section 16 of Railway Claims Tribunal Act , 1987 read with 124-A of Railways Act , 1989 by the applicants i.e. wife, son and daughter of the deceased, Subir Kumar Roy for compensation on account of death of the victim, who allegedly died in an untoward incident.

2. Brief history of the case of the applicant is that on 13.02.2020 the victim came to Sonarpur Railway station from Diamond Harbour Railway station by train after purchasing a return journey ticket. In the evening he again came to Sonarpur station and boarded DN 34818 Sealdah - Diamond Harbour local from Sonarpur Railway station with return journey ticket. During his journey, he suddenly fell down from the running train just before entering Diamond Harbour station at KM Post No.58/4. Immediately the injured person was shifted to Diamond Harbour Hospital with the help of local people and on the same day he expired at 21.20 hrs. The deceased had a 2nd class valid return journey ticket from Diamond Harbour to Sonarpur Railway station dtd.13.02.2020.

3. The respondent railway has filed a written statement denying the facts stated in the claim application. It was averred that there was no prima facie evidence such as Railway Memo, Station Diary, Form - 1 & Form - 2, RPF Diary in respect of the alleged incident. No railway ticket was recovered from the possession of the victim. The applicant filed one railway ticket attached with the claim application which was not seized from the possession of the victim. The applicant has not given any documentary evidence as to from whom and how he got the said alleged railway ticket. GRP has clearly stated that no railway ticket was recovered from the possession of the victim. The victim’s residence was very close to the alleged incident spot and the respondent submits that while the victim was trespassing the railway track was knocked down by an unknown train, and later he died. So, it did not come under the definition of untoward incident under section 123(c)2 of the Railways Act .

3.1 Thus, the Railway has prayed for the dismissal of the claim application.

4. We have perused the claim application as well as the written statement filed by the Railways. Based on the above pleadings and material evidence placed on record, the following issues were framed for determination and adjudication in this case :

1. Whether the incident on account of which the victim is alleged to have died can be termed as an untoward incident as defined under Section 123(c)(2) of the Railways Act , 1989 ?

2. Whether the victim was a bona fide passenger of the train on the date of incident, as alleged ?

3. Whether the applicants are the sole dependents of the deceased in terms of Section – 123 (b) of Railways Act and are entitled to get compensation from the respondent ?

4. Relief, if any.

4. In this case, the applicants in support of their claim application have tendered into evidence the affidavit of applicant no.1. They have filed certain documents which were exhibited A/1 to A/17. The applicant no.1 was cross-examined as AW/1 by the Ld. Counsel for the respondent. The applicant produced one Saptarshi Roy as AW/2 for adducing evidence.

4.1 On the other hand, the Railway has submitted the DRM report and has marked the same as Ex.R-1.

5. In order to avoid repetition of appreciation of evidence, and for the purpose of brevity, issue no.1 & 2 are taken up together for the purpose of discussion and orders.

Issue No. 1 & 2 :

6. As per GDE No.602 dtd.13.02.2020 of Diamond Harbour GRPS, some daily passengers came to the GRPS and informed that one unknown person aged about 55 yrs fell down from the running train at Kalinagar Rail Gate. As per the GDE No.612 dtd.13.02.2020 of the said GRPS, the SI of Police went to the P.O. and met with some local villagers. He came to know that on 13.02.2020 at 19.45 hrs during time of travelling in train No.DN 34818 one male person fell down from the above noted train. The local people got him