Chennai MRTS: Woman dies after fall in abandoned room while searching for toilet

For four days, the family of Vijaya V did not know what had happened to her after she went missing at Chennai’s Thirumayilai Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) at Mylapore. 

Her daughter, Gayathri, who had accompanied her on the train journey, lodged a missing person complaint after waiting for her mother to return from looking for a restroom.

The search ended in tragedy on Monday, October 12, when Vijaya’s decomposed body was found in an unused room on the ground floor of the station. A foul smell emanating from the area led the station manager to alert the Government Railway Police (GRP).

Fifty-five-year-old Vijaya, wife of Venkatesan and a resident of Balaji Nagar in Pallikaranai, is suspected to have fallen through an opening in an abandoned room on the second floor while looking for a place to relieve herself. 

The incident has raised serious questions about the condition of the elevated railway station and the safety risks posed by neglected spaces used by commuters every day.

According to reports, Vijaya had travelled with her daughter on October 8, taking a Velachery-Chennai Beach-bound train to visit the Government Multispecialty Hospital at Omandurar Estate in Chepauk.

During the journey, Vijaya complained of severe stomach pain and told her daughter that she needed to use the restroom. The two alighted from the train at Thirumayilai station.

While Gayathri waited for her mother, Vijaya went towards the upper floor in search of a toilet, and her daughter did not realise that she had entered a disused room.

When Vijaya did not return after a long wait, Gayathri became worried and approached the Mylapore police station. The police registered a missing person case and began efforts to trace her.

The breakthrough came only on Monday morning, when the station manager reported the foul smell coming from an unused section on the ground floor. The GRP arrived at the station at around 11.50 am and inspected the area.

Inside an abandoned room measuring approximately 10 feet by 10 feet, the police found Vijaya’s body in a bloated state after moving old furniture, broken wooden desks and damaged steel chairs. 

Preliminary inquiries suggest that Vijaya may have entered the disused room on the second floor while looking for a restroom and accidentally fallen from a height of around 60 feet through an opening, which was approximately 1.5 feet wide.

A postmortem examination was conducted at the Government Royapettah Hospital on Tuesday, October 13. The medical report observed fractures to Vijaya’s ribs and spine and said the cause of death was a blood clot near the heart. The body was subsequently handed over to her husband, Venkatesan.

GRP Inspector Rajkumar registered a case under Section 194 (unnatural death) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).