'It was an accident, NOT A SUICIDE'

After 40 years of working at level crossings, railway employee Gopinath Pawar, who witnessed Ambani case witness Bharat Borge's death on the tracks, says...

After 40 years of working at level crossings, railway employee Gopinath Pawar, who witnessed Ambani case witness Bharat Borge's death on the tracks, says...

Gopinath Pawar (58), a lever operator at Vile Parle level crossing, is completely shaken. Pawar, who is mourning the demise of his wife who passed away on April 1, saw the key witness in one of the most sensational cases of our times dying.

Around 7.50 am: Borge, wearing a yellow jacket, holding a bag enters the level crossing at Vile Parle from the east. He doesn't notice the approaching fast local train heading towards Churchgate	Commotion: The motorman of the approaching train blows the horn. Even nearby pedestrians shout out warnings and Pawar blows his whistle to alert Borge	The end: Borge panics and stops on the tracks. He tries to bend, but by then the train hits him and drags his body 100m away

Pawar was on duty when Bharat Borge, the man who spotted the pebbles and sand in Anil Ambani's helicopter and reported it, was hit by a train on Tuesday.

Said Pawar, "He [Borge] was lost in his thoughts and panicked on hearing the horn of the approaching train.

One moment he was frozen in the middle of the tracks and the next he was hit by the train and dragged along the tracks."

The Mankhurd resident was alone in his cabin, as his colleague had reported late to work. Since the level crossing is operational for vehicular traffic only after 11 am, Pawar was monitoring the train moments from his cabin, located a few metres away.

He also had to do the gruesome job of collecting all the documents on Borge's corpse.

Forensic support

Pawar, who has been posted at level crossings for 40 years, has dismissed the theory that this was a suicide.

Having witnessed hundreds of train accidents and more than his fair share of suicides, Pawar said those who intended to end their lives usually kept their necks on the track or lay down before the train.

A forensics expert from the Cooper postmortem centre corroborated Pawar's claim that Borge's death was an accident. The expert, on condition of anonymity told MiD DAY that the injuries on Borge's body point towards this.

Meanwhile, Borge's family does not deny the possibility of a suicide, but they don't want to rule out foul play till the crime branch or the state CID investigates the case.

Suicide note or police statement?
One of the theories the police is probing is that Borge might have been on his way to the Crime Branch office in Bandra and the letter for the police officer could have been his way of making a statement.