Kanpur crash: Mysterious ‘do-gooders’ give invalid currency to victims

Accident victims get invalid currency as compensation The victims were told that the money was issued by the Railways

The news of the Indore-Patna Express derailment was what the nation woke up to on Sunday. Currently, the death toll is at 147 and there are several injured. The rescue mission is still underway. However, a shocking thing came to light – some of the injured were somehow mysteriously handed some old ₹500 notes and were told that this was compensation from the railways.

Here's a tweet by Prashant Kumar highlighting this incident: 

Among those who were given ₹5000 cash by some unknown persons were Asha Mishra and Anil. Both received 10 notes of ₹500, which have been declared invalid since November 8. A relative of one of the injured claimed that the person who handed over the money told her that the money was given to them by the railways, as reported by PTI.

The matter was tweeted to the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu who said that the matter was being looked into.

However, while we still await the authenticity of the notes and the people who gave the money, it is a highly insensitive occurrence. Instead of lending a helping hand in tragedy, these mysterious ‘do-gooders’ have chosen a train accident site to offload the invalid currency. The country, as we all know, is reeling under a cash drought thanks to the campaign against black money in our country. This is like rubbing salt on the wounds of the injured. Already they are such distress and some people are using this to their advantage. Humanity stooping to a new low.

There was also positive news as reports came in that the Authorities in Kanpur and Patna scrambled to protect victims of the Indore-Patna Express derailment and their kin from the effects of demonetisation, stepping in to facilitate cash availability on Sunday through mobile ATMs and setting up cash counters to exchange old invalid currency, so that victims and their family members do not face any cash crunch.