Daijiworld Media Network - New York
New York, Sep 15: A 24-year-old Indian-origin woman and her Nepali-American friend were killed after being struck by a subway train while they were sitting on the tracks at a station in Lower Manhattan early Sunday, with police investigating the circumstances that led the two young adults onto the tracks.
The victims were identified as Malaika Chitre, 24, of Dayton, New Jersey, and Navam Kaul, 24, of Sayreville, New Jersey. They were struck by a southbound No. 4 train at the Spring Street subway station at around 3:14 am on September 13, according to the New York Police Department.
Police officers responding to a 911 call about two people needing assistance found Chitre and Kaul on the tracks after they had been hit. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to law enforcement sources cited by The New York Post, surveillance or bystander video appeared to show the two sitting on the tracks moments before the train arrived. The train operator reportedly told supervisors that she saw the pair and attempted to apply the emergency brakes, but was unable to stop the train in time.
Sources said it remained unclear whether Kaul had fallen onto the tracks or climbed down himself. Chitre was then believed to have gone onto the tracks to help him. The operator reportedly said Chitre appeared to be laughing and pulling Kaul towards her as the two sat on the tracks.
About 100 passengers were evacuated from the train following the incident, according to local reports.
The reason the two were on the tracks remains under investigation. Law enforcement sources told The New York Post that detectives were examining whether the pair could have been intoxicated or otherwise disoriented and failed to recognise the danger of the approaching train. No suicide notes were found, although investigators have not ruled out suicide as a possible explanation.
The deaths have shocked the friends and families of the two young professionals, who had known each other for years and moved in the same South Asian social circles. Both graduated from Rutgers University in 2024. Local reporting said Chitre had graduated from South Brunswick High School in 2020 and earned a bachelor's degree in public health with a minor in business administration from Rutgers.
Chitre had been working as a quality operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals and had recently begun pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at Temple University School of Pharmacy.
Kaul, who was of Nepali descent, graduated from Sayreville War Memorial High School in 2020 and Rutgers Business School in 2024 with a bachelor's degree in finance. He had been working as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg since May 2025. His parents had reportedly immigrated to the United States from Nepal about three decades ago.
Friends and acquaintances remembered Kaul as friendly, charismatic and down-to-earth. Rajnikant Pipalia, whose son was a close friend of Kaul, said the two victims had grown up in the same social environment and belonged to the same South Asian circle.
“There’s nothing in his life that would make him do anything stupid,” Pipalia said of Kaul, according to The New York Post.
A former school friend described Kaul as “goofy, funny, and very charismatic”, while a neighbour of Chitre's family recalled her as a bright and intelligent student who enjoyed playing with children in the neighbourhood.
The tragedy has left relatives and friends struggling to understand why the two were on the subway tracks in the early hours of the morning.
The NYPD investigation remains underway, and authorities have yet to determine the circumstances that led to Chitre and Kaul being on the tracks before the fatal collision.