For Anil Rai of Begusarai, the tragedy visited him twice in two days as he identified his son, Govind (10), in the mortuary of LNJP hospital on Monday morning. Govind was one of the two persons to have died in the stampede that broke out at New Delhi railway station on Sunday following last minute changes in the platform of Sapt Kranti Express.
Anil, who too had sustained injuries in the stampede, was not in a position to identify his son, though the description he had given about Govind matched with that of the deceased boy. Anil was also discharged from the hospital on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, at the New Delhi railway station, there were no signs of the crowd abating with people reaching in large numbers to take trains out of the city on summer vacation. The authorities had suspended sale of platform tickets on all the major stations of the city, including the New Delhi railway station, to control the crowd. “We also deployed people specifically to keep an eye on whether the announcements were being made correctly. Also extra Home Guards and other staff were deployed,” Northern Rail-way spokesperson Anand Swarup said, adding that CCTV footage was being monitored closely to ensure that there was no build-up of crowd at the stations.
There were more than a few people hoping to trace out their belongings, while some even looked around for their missing family members. People had lost their mobile phones, wallets, belongings, tickets and other things in the stampede. Additional deputy commissioner of police (railways) B.S. Gurjar, however, said the belongings had been kept at the police station and the claimants could retrieve it.
“We will verify the claimants identity and release the articles belonging to them,” he said. However, not many seemed to have approached the police station. Among the injured, said Mr Swarup, eight had been discharged. “A girl, identified as Sonam, a resident of Bhagalpur in Bihar, has also been declared out of danger,” said Mr Swarup.