A functionary of the Prashant Kishor-led Jan Suraaj Party, who went missing while travelling on a train to Patna, was found dead near railway tracks in Ranchi on Tuesday, police said.
Devpalik Gupta, 31, the party’s digital communications manager, went missing from the Ranchi-Patna Janshatabdi Express on Monday.
His body was found near the tracks in Jarwadih village, close to pole number 379/18 on the Ranchi-Muri line, Angara police station officer-in-charge Gautam Kumar Rajwar told PTI.
“Preliminary findings suggest that he died after accidentally falling from the moving train,” Rajwar said.
The body will be sent to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi for a post-mortem examination. Police will register an unnatural death case based on statements from Gupta’s family members, Rajwar added.
Gupta’s colleague Gautam Kumar told PTI that they had boarded the train at Ranchi railway station on Monday. It departed at around 2.25 pm.
About 10 minutes later, Gupta, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi, told his companions that he was going to the pantry car to get something to eat but did not return, Kumar said.
His colleagues searched the pantry car and checked every coach but could not find him, Kumar said. When the train stopped at Muri Junction, they lodged a complaint with the Government Railway Police, following which a search was launched.
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