‘I am alive’, says man on poster of Elphinstone Road stampede victims

mumbai

Updated: Oct 04, 2017 13:27 IST

“I am alive,” is the only sentence 35-year-old Imran Shaikh is repeating to his friends, relatives and well-wishers ever since the Elphinstone bridge stampede.

On Friday, 23 commuters lost their lives in the stampede.

Owing to a misunderstanding, his name was circulated as one of the victims of the tragedy, first in media reports and later on a banner outside Elphinstone bridge.

A garment trader, Shaikh works in Dadar and used to frequently travel with his uncle Masood Alam, 38, from Parel or Dadar. “That day, I alighted at Dadar while my uncle got down at Parel,” said Shaikh.

Alam got caught in the stampede and died of suffocation and internal injuries at KEM Hospital.

“A lot of mediapersons, who enquired about my uncle, requested me to share his picture. The one photo I had was both of us together,” Shaikh added.

A flurry of calls and messages alerted Shaikh about the misunderstanding.

While a tabloid printed his picture as one of the deceased along with his uncle, local news channels also showed it in their news reports.

“Some of my friends later informed me that there is a banner put up outside the bridge, which has printed my name and picture,” Shaikh added.

While the media corrected the mistake, Shaikh has no idea what to do about the banner.

“It’s been printed by some local politician and I don’t know whom to contact,” Shaikh said.

When informed, divisional railway manager, Mukul Jain, said, “I’ll ask police personnel to check the issue.”

Western Railway officials said that they don’t know put up the banner.

“It’s wrong to misrepresent someone as the victim . But since people’s emotions are involved, we can’t remove the banner immediately, but will take necessary steps” said the officials.

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