A few days ago, a youth walking close to the railway track between Tiruchi Fort and Palakkarai station was knocked down by a passenger train.
The 20-year-old was apparently listening to music in his headphone and could not hear the noise of the approaching passenger train.
Though the Government Railway Police (GRP) was able to establish the identity of the victim in the case quickly, the same cannot be said about several other such cases in which the identities of the victims remain elusive.
In Tiruchi and Madurai railway sub-divisions alone, the identity of 128 persons run over by trains till October this year was yet to be established.
A majority of the victims (108 out of 128) were men.
Jurisdiction
Encompassing Tiruchi and Madurai sub-divisions, the jurisdiction of the GRP, Tiruchi district stretches from Villupuram in the north to Kuzhithurai near Kanyakumari in the south. The limit in the east-west direction stretches from Karaikal to Palani.
About 22 GRP stations and eight outposts fall within the ambit of Tiruchi district. Every run-over case, except suspicious ones, was booked under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Based on investigation and other inputs, they were classified as “accidental death” or “suicide.”
In some cases, based on the loco pilot’s statement, the case was treated as suicide as the pilot would have noticed the person deliberately coming in front of the train.
Photographs, identification marks, and details of the dress worn by the victim are sent to the Railway Crime Records Bureau in Tiruchi.
Identity of the victim
Complete information from thereon would be circulated to all the police stations for comparison with ‘missing person’ cases to establish the possible identity of the victim, sources said.
The information was circulated to the media to determine the identity of the victim.
A few years ago, the GRP had a dedicated website in which details of such victims were posted.
But that facility does not exist any more.
