Even as hundreds of people (929, to be exact) who died on railway premises this year, including a majority killed in rail accidents have not been identified till date, a five-member team named Shodh formed by the Mumbai Government Railway Police (GRP) has helped four aggrieved families in identifying their near and dear ones, thereby providing them with a sense of closure.
Shodh is a website created by the Mumbai GRP to identify those killed in rail accidents. The description of the deceased including his or her photo is uploaded on the website. In 2014, about 1,091 people who died on railway premises could not be identified while in 2013 another 1,130 deceased people remained unidentified. The GRP disposes of their bodies within a month of their death.
The latest case in which Shodh helped the family of the deceased is of Megha Zamble (23), a resident of Vasai who along with her family was desperately searching for her mother, Pramila Santosh Mane. Pramila had, on November 14, gone missing from her residence and after three days of searching, Ms Zamble went to the GRP headquarters in Wadibunder.
Here, the Shodh team helped Ms Zamble discover that her mother had been killed in a railway accident on November 15 in an area that comes under the jurisdiction of Mumbai Central GRP. Ms Zamble identified her mother through her photo and clothes.
In the second incident, 20-year-old youth Mujahid Dastagir Shaikh, a resident of Gautam Nagar in Thane went missing from his residence on October 3. After searching for his son everywhere, 50-year-old Dastagir was informed about Shodh. He reached the GRP headquarters and identified his son through his photo 23 days after he was last seen by his family.
The last two cases are of 81-year-old Raghunath Adsul, who was killed at CST on October 1 and was identified a week later by his son, and of 32-year-old Suman Pal, who was killed at Thane on September 27, and her body was identified on October 1.
