NEW DELHI: Police said on Thursday they had discovered the dead body of a man that travelled undetected for 900 kilometres across northern India locked inside a train toilet.

They believe the man boarded the train days before it set off from Bihar state and died inside the lavatory after locking the door.

An official said railway police forced the door open on Sunday after passengers complained of smell.

The Saharsa-Amritsar Jan Sewa Express had by then travelled for nearly 24 hours from its starting point. The entire journey takes 35 hours.

The train was delayed for five hours while officers tried to check the dead man’s identity with other travellers before the journey to Amritsar was resumed.

Also read: Indian train travels for 13km without engine

“We still don’t know anything about the man,” said Sahay, the official. He is posted in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh state, where the grisly discovery was made.

“He likely entered the train when it was still parked in the yard and died on his own two or three days before the body was discovered,” he added.

Sanjay Rai, a doctor at a railway hospital, told The Times of India that the man “died after he slipped into a possible coma”.

The authorities have since distributed missing posters of the man around railway stations in Bihar.

Tens of thousands of bodies go unclaimed and unidentified in India every year. They are generally cremated by the police after three days, following efforts to identify any friends or relatives of the deceased.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2022