Man declared dead in train accident found alive 11 years later

A 38-year-old man declared dead in the 2010 Jnaneswari Express derailment in India’s West Bengal has been discovered alive after 11 years.

The thriller was unravelled when the CBI detained a man, namely Amritavan Chowdhury, from Jorabagan in India’s North Kolkata on Saturday evening. The man was 27 years old at the time of the accident.

Chowdhury was listed among the many passengers who died in the Jnaneswari accident. At least 148 people were killed in the incident that happened in May 2010.

According to an Indian Railway spokesperson, a man from Kolkata allegedly identified a body through DNA sampling, claiming that his son died in the incident.

As per the railway’s announcement following the incident, a member of the family was given a job in the railway apart from monetary compensation, he said.

The sister of the man has been working in the signaling department of the Sealdah division of the Eastern Railway.

The inquiry against the family launched after CBI received a complaint from the office of general manager (vigilance), administrative branch of the Indian South Eastern Railway last year in August.

“The preliminary findings suggest that the person in question, Amritava Chowdhury, against whose death his family was compensated by the government, is still alive,” said a CBI officer.

According to a senior police officer, the bodies that were in a recognizable condition were handed over to the families after examining the documents.

“There were many bodies that were mutilated and it could not be identified. In those cases, the bodies were handed over to the family members after DNA matching,” the officer told media.

“It was apparent that the Chowdhury family in alleged connivance with some government officials had tampered with the DNA profiling report,” the police officer concluded.