Worse, in the absence of an ambulance or hearse in the heart of Mumbai, the body was taken to Sion Hospital, about three km away, on a luggage cart, without even a stretcher to support it.

Anitadevi Sahu had come with her relatives to Mumbai from Vapi to find a match for her sister-in-law. During the evening rush-hour, when thousands of passengers throng Dadar railway station, she mistakenly got into the women's first-class compartment, along with two other relatives.

When regular commuters informed her that it was a first-class compartment, she hurriedly got out of the moving train, fell on the platform and slipped under the train. Her body was cut into three pieces, as the over-crowded train sped over her.

But the next few hours saw a shocking display of apathy, humiliation of the dead, an assault on human dignity and appalling lack of sense of civility on the part of the railway administration and the police. And all this happened in the presence of thousands of commuters in Mumbai's busiest suburban railway station during the peak evening hours.

According to eyewitnesses and railway officials, her dismembered body was picked up by porters with bare hands and kept on the platform. Later, someone covered it up with a piece of cloth.

The stationmaster claimed there was no ambulance available to carry the body, and ordered his officials to search for porters to take the body. There was shocking lack of coordination between the railway staff and the police officials, even as the body -surrounded by hundreds of curious passengers -continued to be kept on the public premises.

The stationmaster had issued a memo asking for porters to take the body on a stretcher, but the station lacked even such basic facilities. It took four hours before the administration could organise porters, who then piled up the dismembered body on a luggage cart and took it out of the railway station.

But cabbies refused to allow the body to be transported in their vehicles, so it had to be pushed on the luggage cart all the way to Sion hospital. Niranjan Sahu, the victim's husband, along with some relatives stayed back at the station to complete the formalities. But his teenaged son, who was witness to his mother's death and the consequent humiliation, was shattered and had to be sent back to their hometown along with some other relatives.

Everyday about 10 people get killed under trains on Mumbai's suburban railway network. Though the section is one of the most profitable for Indian Railways -as six million fare-paying commuters travel daily in over-crowded trains -the authorities have not invested in basic facilities like stretchers, ambulances, para-medical teams, etc.

In the past, private trusts used to operate ambulance services outside the stations, but constant pestering by the railway staff and the police forced many of the trusts to withdraw the service. Even at Dadar, the ambulance service has been withdrawn by a private trust.

Many of the victims are crushed under the tracks and it becomes difficult to assemble their body parts and take them to hospitals. The railway police have to virtually bribe beggars and urchins, who then get drunk on country liquor, before proceeding to evacuate the body.