The death of a 20-year-old Assam college student after she told her family she felt unsafe among allegedly inebriated passengers on a train has raised questions over the response to a railway safety complaint and the circumstances in which she died. Himashri Boro’s body was found near railway tracks in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district after her family lost contact with her during the early hours of October 6.
Boro had travelled to Visakhapatnam with a dance troupe for a competition and was returning alone because she had an examination scheduled in Guwahati. According to her family, she boarded Train No. 22503 at Visakhapatnam around 12.15am on October 6. The Northeast Frontier Railway said CCTV footage showed her boarding the S-2 coach with a general ticket.
After boarding, Boro called her sister-in-law and a friend, saying she was uncomfortable with the atmosphere inside the coach. Her sister-in-law told the Times of India that Boro said there were “inebriated men all around” and that she felt unsafe. Boro also shared a video of the coach with a friend. The family said it lost contact with her between 2.30am and 3am and subsequently alerted the railway helpline.
The NFR confirmed that it received a complaint through the Rail Madad portal on October 6 regarding alleged misbehaviour with a woman passenger aboard the train. An assistant sub-inspector of the Railway Protection Force and other personnel attended to the complaint at Srikakulam Road station, according to the railway. They searched the general and sleeper coaches but could not trace Boro.
Her family said it did not receive subsequent confirmation that she had been located or was safe. Family members have alleged murder and accused the RPF of negligence, while the NFR said the circumstances were under inquiry. A preliminary probe by the Government Railway Police in Palasa prima facie suggested that Boro might have fallen from a moving train, the railway said. The cause and sequence of events have not been conclusively established.
The RPF later found Boro’s body between the Ponduru and Dusi railway sections in Srikakulam district. The GRP shifted it to Government RIMS Hospital in Srikakulam for an inquest and autopsy. Authorities are recording statements from passengers and from the person who accompanied Boro to the station. CCTV footage from Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam is also being examined.
The case has required coordination between railway authorities and police in Assam and Andhra Pradesh. The investigation will need to establish what happened after Boro boarded the train, how the safety complaint was handled, whether she was located during the search and how she came to be found near the tracks. The fact that her two bags were reportedly found intact inside the coach has also been cited by her family in its demand for a thorough investigation, but it does not by itself establish the circumstances of her death.
Dimoria MLA Tapan Das said the Assam government would facilitate the return of Boro’s body after the autopsy. He said officials were coordinating the arrangements because there were no direct flights to Guwahati. The RPF and GRP investigations remain underway, and authorities have yet to establish the sequence of events leading to Boro’s death.
