'The motorman appeared like god and saved my life'

Renuka Kesarkar was on her way to Vashi when she fell from the train.

Mankhurd resident Renuka Kesarkar, 23, will be able to appear for her final year engineering examinations after surviving a near-fatal fall from a local train, and she has an alert Central Railway (CR) motorman to thank for it. The Good Samaritan is Bharat Sawant, who was piloting a train in the opposite direction and promptly stopped to help Kesarkar when he saw her falling from the train between Mankhurd and Vashi.

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Speaking to mid-day about that fateful day, Kesarkar said, "I am in the final year at an engineering college. On May 2, I was on my way to Vashi to pay for the membership of a library where I was going to go to prepare for my exams that start on May 8, when the accident occured."

Renuka is now busy preparing for her final exams, which start this week. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Lost grip

"I was in the ladies compartment and stood near the door when the train was nearing Vashi station, where I had to alight. Just then, my grip of the door handle slipped and I fell. I don't remember what happened after that," she said.

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Vashi GRP sources told mid-day that Sawant, who was piloting a Panvel-CSMT train going in the opposite direction, saw Kesarkar falling from the train. "Sawant had started his train from Panvel at 3.08 pm. When his train crossed Vashi station, he saw Kesarkar falling from the train near pole 22/15. He immediately applied the emergency brakes and the train stopped. The girl had fallen between two tracks and was bleeding from her head. Sawant and the train guard Balu Punja got down from the train and with the help of a few passengers, took Kesarkar into the train," sources said.

The spot where Kesarkar fell is around two and half kilometres away from the Mankhurd railway station. Sawant took the train to Mankhurd, where the station master called the Vashi GRP, who then took her to the Rajawadi hospital.

Motorman Bharat Sawant

Unconscious all along

"I was unconscious the whole time. I did not even know when I was taken to the hospital. The doctors gave me two stitches on my head and discharged me the next day," said the daughter of farmers who stays in Mankhurd with her brother.

She added, "I was helpless and not even able to stand after I fell from the running train. I can't even imagine how I was taken to the hospital. The motorman appeared like god a few minutes after the incident and saved my life."

Her elder brother Ganesh said, "I was shocked when I got to know about the incident, and I have no words for the person who saved my sister. I love my sister and always take care of her like a child. She is fine now and is preparing for her exams." Meanwhile, Anil Kumar Jain, senior public relation officer, CR said, "The motorman and the guard did a tremendous job saving the life of the female commuter."

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