Woman declares husband ‘dead’ to avail compensation in Balasore train tragedy, FIR lodged

A woman allegedly declared her hearty and healthy husband as ‘dead’ in a bid to grab the compensation amount of Rs 5 lakh being provided by the Odisha government to the families of Balasore train accident victims.

The matter came to the fore after the woman’s husband himself lodged a written complaint in this connection. Now, the woman has gone into hiding fearing arrest.

The bizarre incident has been reported from Maniabandha village of Cuttack district.

According to sources, Geetanjali Datta and her husband Bijay Datta have been living separately for the last 13 years. However, Geetanjali allegedly lodged fake complaints against Bijay on several occasions and harassed him with the help of the police. 

Meanwhile, Bijay came to know that Geetanjali had traveled all the way to Balasore to fraudulently avail the compensation amount provided by the state government for the kin of the deceased. She tried to show Bijay as ‘dead’ and tried to grab compensation.

However, she had to return empty-handed after failing to furnish the necessary documents to support her claims. After learning about her fraudulent tactics, Bijay lodged a written complaint against his wife. He has demanded stringent action against Geetanjali as per law.

Reports suggest several people have made futile and fraudulent attempts to claim the compensation prompting the Odisha government to sound an alarm.

Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena asked the railways and Odisha police to take stringent action against such fake claimants.

“All should be very careful in this regard and take prompt as well as stern action in such cases,” Jena tweeted and tagged the Odisha DGP, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, and railway ministry.

Worth mentioning, CM Naveen Patnaik has declared Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for the next of kin of the deceased while PM Modi has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh. On the other hand, the Railway Ministry has declared Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of those who died in the train accident.

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