Woman headed to Kumbh went ‘missing’ after NDLS stampede. She was in the last place they’d look

Tara Devi was supposed to board train to Prayagraj with husband to attend Maha Kumbh when stampede broke out at NDLS. Her family ran pillar to post in search of 50-yr-old, but in vain.

Platforms 14-15 at New Delhi railway station where stampede occurred during Maha Kumbh rush | Mrinalini Dhyani | ThePrint

New Delhi: They searched frantically for her, but Tara Devi was nowhere to be found. The 50-year-old was headed to the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj when she ‘went missing’ after the stampede that claimed 18 lives at the New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS) on 15 February.

“When I couldn’t find her, I returned to NDLS on 16 February and asked railways officials for help. They directed me to LNJP, RML, and Lady Hardinge (hospitals). I went everywhere they told me to check, but she was nowhere to be found,” her husband Gupteshwar Yadav told ThePrint over the phone Monday.

But Tara Devi, it turned out, never deviated from the original plan. She made the pilgrimage to the Maha Kumbh as planned, albeit without her travel companion—her husband, who was running from pillar to post in search of her. “We only found out when she returned to Delhi on the evening of 17 February,” said Gupteshwar.

According to him, the couple was at NDLS on 15 February to board a train to Prayagraj, when they got separated amidst overcrowding near the footbridge by platform 14. As he searched for Tara Devi amid a sea of devotees waiting to board the next available train to Prayagraj, a stampede broke out in which 18, including four minors, died.

Tara Devi, meanwhile, managed to move to a less crowded spot and eventually boarded a train to Prayagraj around midnight from platform 8. “She thought I also boarded some train or the other and would see her at the Maha Kumbh,” said Gupteshwar, adding that his wife does not own a phone and was unable to recall his phone number. 

File photo of Tara Devi | By special arrangement

“She had never gone on a trip all by herself before this,” he said. “A family from Bihar helped her throughout the journey. I had lost hope, but when she came home, I was overjoyed,” a relieved Gupteshwar told ThePrint.

Asked about Tara Devi’s case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) K.P.S. Malhotra said officials came across media reports which identified her as missing. “When we checked the records, we found no missing report filed at New Delhi railway station police station.”

The police then managed to establish communication with Tara Devi’s family members who confirmed that she had returned home. “She took a train but her family believed that she went missing from NDLS after the stampede,” Malhotra said, adding that there are no pending missing person complaints pertaining to the NDLS stampede. But his team, he said, is in touch with officials from other police jurisdictions in this regard.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)