Once again the craze of clicking selfies turned out to be the most unfortunate life event for two Delhi-based families after two teenagers were crushed under a train while clicking pictures between two railway tracks at Anand Vihar, east Delhi, on January 15.
The two victims, Yash Kumar (16 years) and Shubham (14 years) along with five other friends rented a DSLR camera for Rs 400/day and went to click pictures on the railway tracks. A spot between two tracks was chosen to take selfies with an approaching train in the background. They were so deeply engaged in taking pictures when the train approached that they didn’t notice another train coming from the opposite direction.
Both Yash and Shubham jumped on the other track fearing that they might be hurt between two trains but they came under another train which was passing through the track on which they jumped. While the other boys remained at their places.
As stated by the rest boys, they had clicked pictures in front of the Akshardham temple too but they wanted to have some “daring selfies” for their social media profiles.
“We had seen many pictures clicked around railway tracks earlier, and so, out of fascination, we thought that we too could get one if we go there,” said one of the boys.
Before going to the railway tracks, the boys had attended their maths tuition where they took a test. The test ended around 2:00 pm. “The boys stayed after the test and were discussing something. Since I was away from them, I couldn’t hear them. But while they were leaving, I reminded them of their upcoming Science. They seemed to be in rush,” said the tuition teacher, Deepak adding to it that both the students were very attentive.
This event has left their parents in a massive state of grief and shock. Yash’s mother said,”He was a bright student and had an interest in photography. On Saturday morning, he clicked my pictures but deleted them when I insisted that he do so,” she said.
“That day he left his phone at home and went for the tuitions. It was the first time that he went out for photography otherwise he had done in the home itself whatever he wanted to do with his photography,” added Yash’s Father.
The police team has fastened their investigation process and railways have also been approached for assistance.
“Primary investigations suggest this was an accident. The camera is seized and we have also scanned the CCTV footage around the area, which shows the boys entering the railway premises,” said DCP Railways, Parvaiz Ahmed.
