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French man pushed from train dies
Bhanu P. Lohumi/TNS

Karnal, May 3
After struggling for his life, French national Frank Wilfred, who was admitted to the ICU in the PGI, Chandigarh, in a critical condition after he was allegedly pushed out from a train at Karnal on April 29, succumbed to his injuries early morning today. He had been in a state of coma.

Frank Wilfred breathed his last at 1.56 am and the French Embassy was informed immediately. His post-mortem, conducted by a board of doctors, was video-graphed and the report said that prima facia he died due to a severe head injury. His body would be handed over to the embassy officials expected to reach Chandigarh tomorrow, GRP inspectors from Ambala and Chandigarh divisions said.

The Frenchman was allegedly pushed from the Sachkhand Express, running between Delhi and Amritsar, at platform No. 2 in Karnal railway station on April 29 and his head banged against the ground, leading to a serious injury.

The TTE, Manoj Kumar, booked for neglect of duty and attempt to murder, was arrested yesterday.

Lalit Kumar, SHO (GRP), who had seized the passport and some other documents of the foreigner yesterday, said two teams were constituted for conducting searches at various places in Delhi and Mumbai. The search led to the finding of three documents and a camera and a cigarette case.

The police is also screening the passengers’ list to know who all were present in the coach from which Frank was pushed out. He said that suspicion was raised about the conduct of Manoj Kumar as he did not inform the authorities that he was in possession of documents belonging to the foreigner.

The Inspector-General (IG) Railway Police, who held a press conference at Ambala on May 1, stated that it was the responsibility of the ticket checker to inform the GRP police, especially when he was present in the same coach from where the foreigner was reportedly pushed.

The preliminary investigations suggested that there was some quarrel between the foreigner and Manoj before he was pushed out of the train. However, Manoj Kumar had denied the charges and asserted that he was not aware of what happened and claimed that the passengers informed him about the incident and handed over the documents to him.