Tragic: Indian-origin woman, friend crashed to death by subway train in Manhattan; tragedy caught on camera
PTC News Desk: An Indian-origin woman and her Nepali-American friend were killed after being run over by a train at a subway station in New York, according to US media reports. It is suspected that one of them fell onto the tracks and the other jumped down to help.
The victims, both 24, were identified as Malaika Chitre, a resident of Dayton, New Jersey, and Navam Kaul of Sayreville, New Jersey, according to the New York Daily News.
Chitre and Kaul had studied together at Rutgers University. A video of the incident has surfaced online, showing the two near the tracks before an approaching train struck them at the Spring Street subway station in Lower Manhattan.
The incident reportedly involved a downtown No. 4 train travelling on the local tracks. It is still unclear who went onto the tracks first. Both victims died at the scene, and their bodies were later recovered from beneath the train’s third and fourth cars.
The New York Post, citing law enforcement sources, reported that Kaul may have fallen onto the tracks first or gone onto the tracks inside the station, prompting Chitre to try to help him.
Police were alerted at around 3:14 am on Sunday after the train could not stop in time. Around 100 passengers were reportedly on board and were evacuated to the platform.
COUPLE REFUSE TO MOVE as TRAIN BEARS DOWN on MANHATTAN SUBWAY TRACKS — BOTH KILLED pic.twitter.com/MdDKSbnOL9 — RT (@RT_com) September 13, 2026
Kaul attended Rutgers Business School in New Brunswick from fall 2020 to spring 2024, although he did not complete a degree, according to the New York Daily News.
Chitre graduated from Rutgers-New Brunswick School of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelor of Science degree in May 2024.
Their LinkedIn profiles showed that Chitre worked as an operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals, while Kaul was employed as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg.
Rutgers assistant vice president for news and media relations Dory Devlin expressed sadness over the deaths of the two former students.
- PTC NEWS
