New York : An Indian-origin woman and her Nepali-American friend, both 24, were killed after a subway train struck them while they were sitting on the tracks at a station in Lower Manhattan. Malaika Chitre, of Dayton, New Jersey, and Navam Kaul, of Sayreville, New Jersey, were on the roadbed at the Spring Street subway station when they were hit by a southbound No 4 train around 3:15 am, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said.
The train operator told her supervisors that Chitre appeared to be laughing as she pulled Kaul towards her while the two sat on the tracks, sources said. According to law enforcement sources, one of the two victims either fell or climbed onto the tracks, prompting the other to go down and help. Officers responded to reports of two people needing assistance at the station and found Chitre and Kaul on the tracks after they had been struck. Both were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Chitre worked as an operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals, while Kaul was a financial data analyst at Bloomberg, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Both were Rutgers University alumni and graduated around the same time. Friends and acquaintances described Kaul as a friendly and charismatic person who was well-liked in his community. Pipalia said Kaul was of Nepali descent and that his parents had immigrated to the US from Nepal about three decades ago.
A neighbour near Chitre’s family home also remembered her fondly, describing her as a bright and smart student who used to play with children in the neighbourhood. “I was shocked when I heard about this,” the neighbour told The New York Post. “It’s just so weird. I’m still not understanding: why on the track?”
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