27-year-old Malda migrant dies on Shramik Special, body reaches home

MALDA: Migrant worker Khatib Sk should have reached home on Tuesday from Ernakulam, Kerala, after three months. Instead his body arrived at Malda Town station on a Shramik Special train.
The 27-year-old is the second casualty from this part of Bengal in less than 10 days. On May 30, 50-year-old Budhu Porihar from Harishchandrapur, Malda, had died of tuberculosis on a train that had promised to bring him home from Rajasthan.
Khatib, a native of Chandpur under Pukhuria police station here, earned a living as a construction worker in the southern state. Like hundreds from his home district, he was stranded in Kerala without enough cash to go on following the nationwide lockdown clamped in March. Finally, on June 6, he boarded the train home.
According to cousin and co-passenger Sk Moyallem, Khatib took ill soon after they left Ernakulam. “He complained of diarrhoea and was feeling very weak. Last morning (Monday), we tried to wake him up for a meal, but found him lifeless,” Moyallem said, adding that they informed railway police after the train reached Malda on Tuesday morning.
GRP inspector-in-charge Bhaskar Pradhan confirmed that the young man had died at least 24 hours ago. “The authorities were not immediately informed. The body has been sent to Malda Medical College for post-mortem and swab sample collected for Covid-19 test,” Pradhan said.
Eastern Railway officials called it an unfortunate incident. “It is very sad... The brother (cousin) of the deceased has said he died while the train was crossing Odisha. No one raised an alarm, as they were afraid that they will be deboarded. At Malda, ER staff attended to the youth, but could do little as the person was already dead,” said Nikhil Kumar Chakraborty, CPRO, Eastern Railway.
Khatib is survived by his wife Lucky Khatun and their two children.