Recently, several social media users including journalists like Rana Ayub shared a video in which a woman can be seen lying on the platform of a railway station and a child trying to wake up the woman with a blanket that has been put on her. Ayub claimed that the woman had collapsed at Muzaffarpur station due to hunger and died after travelling from Gujarat.

Rana Ayub had taken to Instagram to share the video mentioned above. Her caption read, “Trigger alert. She had taken a train from Gujarat. A train that took multiple diversions, served no food onboard. At Muzaffarpur station, she collapsed of hunger and died. Her child here trying to wake his dead mother. How do we sleep at night? This is no death, this is a cold-blooded murder”. 

The video is of an incident when 35-year-old Avreena Khatoon, died on board the Ahmedabad-Katihar (Bihar) Shramik Special train. The family deboarded the train and the dead body was kept on the platform till an ambulance arrived to take it to her home in Katihar district. The video shows the child walking up to his mother’s body.

The video was taken as suo motu cognisance to the Patna High Court. Moreover, Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S. Kumar took note of a news report, and said, “this warrants intervention by us in the exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 226 and issue notice.” The court posed issues which needed “warrant immediate attention” and some of them are, “ whether the post-mortem of the body was conducted? If yes, what was the cause of death? Did the woman actually die of hunger? Was she travelling alone with her sibling? If not, who were her companions? What action was taken by the law enforcing agencies?” etc.

According to a report by The Hindu, “The court-appointed advocate Ashish Giri as amicus curiae and directed S.D. Yadav, Additional Advocate General-IX, who was present in the virtual court, to obtain instructions on all issues”. To which the Additional Advocate General responded saying that the news report was partially incorrect and that “The deceased was mentally unstable and had died a natural death during the course of her journey from Surat [Gujarat].” He also added that “The deceased, who had been deserted by her husband, had only one child. Md. Wazir [her brother-in-law — sister’s husband] brought her death to the notice of the railway authorities and after the recording of his statement, the body was allowed to be taken home,”. It was also reported by him that no post-mortem had been conducted and FIR been filed, an ambulance was sent to the place by the district administration and the orphaned child is under safe custody."

The Spokesperson of The Railways had also issued a statement fact-checking viral news and confirmed that food and water are being provided to travellers. 

Recently, Hindi news daily,  Dainik Bhaskar claimed in its report because of the delay of Shramik trains by the Railways, seven people had lost their lives. The Indian Railways also rebutted this claim. 

Similarly, another video which shows a woman lying on the ground in a helpless state was being shared with the context of suffering of immigrants. However, this video was found to be outdated by netizens.

Moreover, PIB also fact-checked the same.