Mumbra train accident: ‘It was my weekly off, so I didn’t go with him, and he met with tragedy,’ says close friend of GRP constable who died

Vicky Babasaheb Mukhyadal, 34, was headed to work when he lost his life. He was transferred to Thane from Kalyan GRP a year ago

Constable Vicky Mukhyadal, mumbra train accident, mumbai news, indian express

Constable Vicky Babasaheb Mukhyadal, 34, who was attached to the Thane Government Railway Police (GRP), was headed to work in civilian clothes when he lost his life. (Source: Express Photo)

Written by: Vijay Kumar Yadav

4 min readMumbaiJun 10, 2025 08:57 AM IST First published on: Jun 9, 2025 at 03:03 PM IST

Among the four passengers who fell off a local train and died near Mumbra in Thane on Monday is a railway police constable who was on duty at the time of the accident.

Vicky Babasaheb Mukhyadal, 34, who was attached to the Thane Government Railway Police (GRP), after doing a night shift was headed to some detection related work in civilian clothes and thereafter was to go home when he lost his life while travelling to Karjat bound fast train, a senior GRP officer said.

Originally from Buldhana, Mukhyadal is survived by his wife and four years old son.

After posting with Kalyan GRP he was transferred to Thane GRP nearly 8-9 months ago.

Mukhyadal’s close friend and colleague GRP constable Amol More said, “Me and Mukhyadal used to go home together after work in the same local train. And later from Kalyan station I would drop him home on my bike enroute my place in Chakki Naka. It was my weekly off so I didn’t go to work and stayed at home. Mukhydal met the tragedy as he was on night duty and returning home. Since I too stay in Kalyan I was informed by my seniors to visit Mukhyadal’s family in Kalyan and convey the news regarding the tragedy to the family. His family is shaken completely.”

The Thane GRP helped the Mukhyadal’s wife to directly go to their village in Sindhkheda Raja in Buldhana as another police team was taking the body to his parent’s house in Buldhana in another vehicle.

“He was a very smart and hardworking policeman from my detection team. The tragic incident snatched him away from us. He will be missed,” said detection officer assistant police inspector Vijay Gopal from Thane GRP.

“He was a very smart policeman with good crime detection skills. He used to live in Kalyan with his family. The body will soon be handed over to them,” said Sudhakar Shirsat, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Thane GRP.

Mukhyadal and four other passengers were on two local trains, one bound for CSMT and the other for Kalyan, when they fell off along with the others near Mumbra railway station on Monday morning, a GRP officer said, citing inputs from the preliminary inquiry. Seven others were injured in the incident.

The passengers reportedly fell around 9 am while the Kasara-bound train, which started from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), was passing through the Diva-Mumbra area. People hanging off this train’s footboard collided with the passengers who were similarly clinging on to another train that was passing in the opposite direction towards CSMT, causing the accident, sources said.
The Central Railway authorities confirmed that another train was passing towards the opposite side, resulting in the accident.
The Mumbra police reached the accident spot and rushed the victims to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital, Kalwa, where four were declared dead. While authorities are trying to determine what exactly caused the accident, sources said it occurred because the train was overcrowded and passengers were standing on either side of its doors.

Did reduced safety buffer distance between two trains and overcrowding cause the accident ?

A GRP officer said the stretch has become “accident-prone” in recent years, especially for fast-moving trains.

There is a possibility that the tracks got pushed down a little due to the recent heavy rainfall in the area, eventually reducing the distance between trains, the officer indicated. Though the distance reduced between the tracks in this manner could be by a small margin, during peak hours, when passengers travel on the footboard due to overcrowding, it could lead to fatal incidents. A thorough probe is, however, underway to ascertain the exact cause behind the incident.

Following the accident, the Railway Board announced that all trains being manufactured for the Mumbai Suburban region will have an automatic door-closing feature. Rakes that are in service will also be redesigned, and the same feature will be added.