A 20-year-old Assam college student died after telling her family that she felt unsafe among inebriated men in a train coach, with her body later found beside railway tracks in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district. Her family has alleged murder and accused the Railway Protection Force of negligence, while railway authorities said the circumstances remain under investigation.
Himashri Boro, a resident of Bonda in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district, had travelled to Visakhapatnam with a dance troupe for a competition. She was returning alone because she had an examination scheduled in Guwahati. According to the Northeast Frontier Railway, she boarded Train No. 22503 at Visakhapatnam at around 12.15am on October 6, entering the S-2 coach with a general ticket.
The railway said CCTV footage showed Boro boarding the train. Her family said she then called her sister-in-law and a friend, telling them that she was uncomfortable because there were inebriated men around her. She also shared a video of the coach with a friend. A local acquaintance identified by the railway as Avinash had accompanied her to the station.
The family said contact with Boro was lost between 2.30am and 3am. It subsequently alerted the railway helpline. The NFR confirmed that it received a complaint through the Rail Madad portal on October 6 about alleged misbehaviour with a woman passenger on the train. An assistant sub-inspector of the RPF and other personnel attended to the complaint at Srikakulam Road station, the railway said, and searched the general and sleeper coaches but could not find her.
Boro’s family said it did not receive a subsequent confirmation that she had been located or was safe. Her two bags were later found intact inside the coach, according to her sister-in-law. The RPF subsequently found her body between the Ponduru and Dusi railway sections in Srikakulam district. The Government Railway Police shifted it to Government RIMS Hospital in Srikakulam for an inquest and autopsy.
The railway said a preliminary inquiry by the GRP in Palasa had prima facie suggested that Boro might have fallen from a moving train. That possibility has not established the full sequence of events, and the circumstances of her death remain under investigation. Authorities are recording statements from passengers and the person who accompanied her to the station, while CCTV footage from Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam is being examined.
The RPF and GRP are coordinating with police in Assam and Andhra Pradesh. Dimoria MLA Tapan Das said the Assam government would facilitate the return of Boro’s body after the autopsy. He said officials were coordinating flight arrangements because there are no direct flights to Guwahati. The investigation is continuing, with authorities yet to establish what happened after Boro boarded the train and before her body was recovered.
