FOUR engineering students sitting on the tracks were run over by a train in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore on Wednesday late night, police said.
The police suspect that the students might have come to the tracks for consuming liquor. “As alcohol bottles and plastic cups were found near the track, we suspect that students might have come here for having liquor,” the inquiry officer said on condition of anonymity.
The incident happened on the Rowthar Palam rail over-bridge near Sulur in Coimbatore when the Chennai–Alappuzha express was passing by. Local residents informed the police.
“Bothanur Railway Police reached the spot and retrieved four bodies and one student who sustained injuries,” said railway police.
The deceased were identified as D Siddique Raja (22), Rajasekar (20), M Gowtham(23), and Karuppasamy(24) – all students of a private engineering college in Coimbatore. They belong to Kodaikanal, Theni, and Viruthunagar districts, as reported in Hindustantimes.com.
M Vignesh(22), a final year engineering student was rescued with grievous injuries and is undergoing treatment in a private hospital here.
“Gowtham and Karuppasamy were the 2018 batch pass outs of the college and had come for an exam. Rajasekar was studying in the third year and two others are in their final year of engineering course. After the exam, they had gone to Rowthar Palam and were hit by the Chennai- Alappuzha express train,” said an inquiry police officer.