Superstar Shah Rukh Khan has expressed his grief over the Vadodara station mishap, which left one person dead and two policemen injured calling it “extremely unfortunate”.
The 51-year-old actor, who travelled in August last year on the Kranti Rajdhani, said his prayers are with the family of the deceased.
Farheed Khan Pathan, a local politician from Vadodara, died of cardiac arrest at the station after the crowd went berserk to get a glimpse of the superstar last night.
The deceased was the relative of a journalist, who was travelling in the same train, and had come to meet her.
“One of our colleagues was travelling with us. Her uncle came down to see her at Vadodara. He suffered from a cardiac arrest. It was really unfortunate. We started the journey thinking we all will travel, spend time with each other when one of your own loses someone one on a trip like this, it saddens us all.
“On behalf of everyone, our prayers and blessings are with the whole family. She has reached there. I just spoke to her. I think the burial is in an hour or half-hour. We have some of our people with the family members there. Hopefully God will bless her soon,” Khan told reporters at the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, in New Delhi.
Khan’s fans had gathered in large number at Vadodara station to watch their favourite star, who had boarded the train from Mumbai and was going to Delhi as part of the promotional campaign for his film.
The crowd went out of control when the train halted and some of them started banging window panes. Police had to resort to lathi charge to control the situation.
Cricketers Irrfan Khan and Yusuf Pathan were also present at the Vadodara station to meet the superstar.
Despite the incident, massive crowd turned out at Ratlam and Kota stations. Policemen were deployed to control the fans.
The 51-year-old actor had boarded the train from Mumbai Central station for Delhi as part of his promotional campaign Raees by Rail. He was accompanied by film’s producer Ritesh Sidhwani, actress Sunny Leone and director Rahul Dholakia.
