BEFORE THE RAILWAY CLAIMS TRIBUNAL BHUBANESWAR BENCH Case No. OA (IIU)/l6/2021 Coram:

Hon'ble Sri Virendra Kumar Goyal, Member (Judicial), RCT/BBS Hon'ble Sri Ajoy Kumar Behera, Member (Technical), RCT/BBS Date of incident: 11/03/20L8 Date of Registration: Ll/02/2027 Date of Judgment: 07/07 /2024 Claim Amount: Rs.8,00,000/-

In the matter of

1. Minati Mohapatra aged about 4O years Applicants W/o late Jayakrushna Mohapatra

2.Saumya Ranjan Mohapatra aged about 18 years S/o late Jayakrushna Mohapatra

3.Jayanti Mohapatra aged about 17 years D/o late Jayakrushna Mohapatra All are belong to village : Trutiapda, POIPS: Bolagarh, Distt: Khurda (Odisha)

Versus l.Union of India represented through Respondent It's General Manager, East Coast Railway Bhubaneswar

2.Bhagaban Mohapatra aged about 7O years S/o late Jayakrushna Mohapatra ,.......Proforma Respondents

3.Susila Mohapatra aged about 65 years Wo ^{Bhagaban Mohapatra} Appearance: For the applicant : None For the respondent : Sri K.C.Mahapatra, Ld. Standing Counsel JUDGEMENT

1. This present claim application had been filed by the Applicants (wife, son and daughter of the deceased) under section 16 of the Railway Claims Tribunal's Act, 1987, claiming compensation of Rs.8,00,000/- (Rupees Eight Lakhs) with 10o/o interest from the date of application till the date of actual payment from the Respondent Railway Administration on account of death of Jayakrushna Mohapatra allegedly in an Untoward Incident involving fall from running train.

The parents of the deceased are proforma Respondent No.2 and 3 in this case.

2.Brief facts of the case: As per claim ^{petition, prior} to the date of occurrence, the deceased Jayakrushna Mohapatra had ^gone to Puri to meet his sister who was staying there in ill health. It is averred that on LL/03/20L8, while the deceased Jayakrushna Mohapatra was returning from PURI to Bolagarh railway station in a passenger train , on the way at Railway over bridge near Begunia college, he fell down from the said running train and succumbed to the injury on the spot. It is stated that based on only written complaint, IIC, Begunia PS registered an UD case No. 4/L8, ^prepared inquest in ^presence of son of the deceased and other relatives and sent the body to DHH, Khurdha for post mortem examination. As per claim petition, the incident of death was caused due to complete negligence on the part of railway authority as the duty of railway is to protect the safety of passenger for happy journey. With regard to the class of travel and ticket, it is stated in the claim petition "not known".

3 Resoondent's Replv: On receipt of notice, the Respondent Railway appeared before the Tribunal and filed their written reply along with statutory DRM's investigation report wherein it is stated that the averments made in the claim petition are completely false, fabricated and concocted in order to grab compensation from the Respondent railway only. It is stated that no station diary entry has been made anywhere regarding the deceased dying out of a fall from running train. It is further alleged that the deceased was not at all a passenger of any train and during inquest no ^journey ticket was recovered in possession with the deceased and as per final report, the deceased was mentally imbalanced, therefore, he might have committed suicide or presumed to be a victim of run over while trespassing on the railway track during night time. As per statutory DRM's investigation report, there are no direct witnesses to the alleged incident and no information with the on duty train guard. It is further alleged that the residence of deceased is adjacent to the place of occurrence and as per circumstantial evidence it is established that deceased at the time death was not travelling in the train but it seems to be a case of suicide or run over during trespassing on railway track. With these facts and circumstances, the Respondent railway have prayed for dismissal of the Claim application.

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4.Aoplic?nt,s Evidence: ^{The Applic}