After Ajitha (40), who mysteriously disappeared from aboard Mangala Express only to be found dead in Barkur in Udupi, Karnataka, three days later, a second woman from Mumbai has gone missing from a running outstation train. M. Kanni (35) on May 11 boarded the Nagercoil Express with her husband D. Murthy, their two children and her father, and was last seen when she visited the train’s toilet between 11.30 pm and 12.30 am the same night. The group was headed for a family summer vacation.
Ms Kanni’s family lodged an FIR in Wadi police station only after approaching the media and politicians. However, the case hasn’t progressed at all. Ms Kanni’s brother, V. Sudhakar, said his brother-in-law was in a state of shock and had been sent to their village, Valliyur.
Mr Sudhakar said his sister and the the family ate a home-cooked meal and went off to sleep at around 10.28 pm. Sometime between 11.30 pm and 12.30 am when the train was passing between Raichur and Wadi, Ms Kanni got up to go to toilet. “There were two young girls sitting in the berths opposite my sister’s family. They saw her leave but when she did not come back, they woke up my brother-in-law,” he said.
Mr Murthy was frantic and looked for his wife in all coaches but she was nowhere in sight. He then travelled back to every station in search of his wife. Meanwhile, Railway Police Force (RPF) said gangs operating near the Maharashtra border might have diverted to South Central Railway owing to RPF’s recently-increased presence in areas like Solapur, Shabadh and Daundh. “We are trying to help them by giving them information about gangs that operate till the Maharashtra border. But we cannot say anything for sure,” said Central Railway RPF inspector general, A.K. Singh.
