Minutes before the incident, the caretaker of a rain basera scolded them for clicking pictures on the railway track.
A desire to get pictures clicked against a moving train as a thrilling act ended in two young lives being lost.
Yash Chandelia (15) and Shubham Saini (16) along with five other friends reached the railway tracks in East Delhi’s Akshardham area and were crushed under the wheels of the train as the duo decided to jump on either side while the videographer captured their daring stunt. All of them are students of Aster Public School in Mayur Vihar. The incident took place on Saturday.
“Please prepare my favourite sweet dish (Gajar-ka-halwa) when I come back home after tuitions. I never thought it would be the last time that I will see him. The sweet dish still awaits him,” said an inconsolable Kamlesh Kumar, mother of Yash. She is yet to come to terms with the loss of her only son.
According to the police, the incident took place on Saturday evening when the fivesome—Rohit Kumar (16), Tushar Anshul Yadav (15), Bhaveet Tomar (13), Rohit Singh (10), Aman (14), Yash Chandelia (15) and Shubham Saini (16)—reached the railway tracks for a photography session post their tuitions in Shashi garden. All of them had even rented a DSLR camera from Neelam Studio in the area for clicking better pictures and the stunt video.
They all wanted to upload it over the social media to get likes and comments.
“All of them went to click pictures with train appearing in the background. Suddenly, they saw trains coming from New Delhi and Anand Vihar on both the tracks in opposite directions. While five of their friends managed to save themselves, Yash and Shubham, who had gone to the tracks for the first time, got confused and were hit by the train coming from New Delhi. His five friends were lying down in the space between the two separate tracks,” said a senior police officer.
Minutes before the incident, the caretaker of a rain basera scolded them for clicking pictures on the railway track. “I saw the kids clicking pictures on the railway track so I scolded them and asked them to get away from it. I even informed the officer I knew on the phone. The children were not seen there for some minutes and later on I saw an ambulance taking their bodies,” said Poonam Devi, care-taker of the rain basera.
Yash’s family started searching for him around 3pm as he did not return home. There was a test at the tuition centre from 12 pm to 2 pm. “He usually returned home within 15-20 minutes after his tuition. He kept his phone at home always, then I took out his sim card and put it in mine. After a few minutes I got a call from Anand Vihar Railway Police station about the incident,” said Rajesh Kumar, Yash’s father.
The two were very sincere and never misbehaved in class and it never seemed that the two possessed any interest in photography.
“Kumar had been studying here for the last one and a half years and Saini started coming here six months ago. The two were best friends and always sat together in class. Although they were average students they never misbehaved and were very sincere also. Phones are not allowed in classes so it never seemed they had interest in clicking pictures.” he added.
However, Saini’s family has moved back to their native place in Himachal Pradesh. All the kids are students of Aster Public School.
