Basta: Two women were crushed to death by a train while crossing the tracks near Basta railway station in Baleshwar district, police said. The victims were identified as Sita Hansda, 64, of Baunasha tofa village, and her sister-in-law Kapura Murmu, 57, of Parulia village, both under Rasgobindpur police limits in neighbouring Mayurbhanj district.
Government Railway Police (GRP) recovered the bodies and launched an investigation. The bodies were also sent for postmortem. Two unnatural death cases (81/2026 and 82/2026) have been registered at the GRP police station. According to police, Hans da and Murmu were crossing the tracks en route to Gandhi Chowk, where they planned to catch a bus to a relative’s home in Singla. While crossing, they were struck by Shalimar Express, which was traveling on the down line. Both died at the spot.
