By Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji
Panaji, May 15: The Konkan Railway (KR) spokesperson has said that never in the history of the KR had any person fallen from a train and landed dead on the tracks.
The KR’s public relations officer Baban Ghatge was called to the Mapusa police station by investigators on Friday, May 15 in connection with the deceased Russian 19-year-old Elena Sukhova’s case.
“I was called to the police station in view of my comments to the media, where I had made a general statement that the death (Elena’s) could not be accidental,” Ghatge said.
“There has been not a single incident in the history of Konkan railway, where a person has fallen from a train and landed on the tracks,” Ghatge said.
The railway official’s statement questioning the police’s hasty accident theory last week, has virtually put paid to police efforts, who initially tried to dismiss Elena’s death as a case of accidental fall from the train.
This, despite the fact that a post mortem report had not even been drafted.
Ghatge also said that an internal probe by the KR had showed that no ticket had been issued to Elena Sukhonova, which showed that she had not boarded any KR train on the day of the incident.
“We have found no ticket issued to her,” Ghatge said.
The railway official’s statement further compounds the case for the police whose versions have been swinging from accident to foul play several times over.
Elena’s mutilated corpse was found three kilometers away from the Thivim railway station on May 8.