Mumbai, May 3 -- Eight years after a Kalyan-bound man died after falling off a train, the Bombay High Court has ordered the Central Railway to pay his family Rs.8 lakh as compensation. While the railway authorities had refused to compensate the family claiming the man was not a bonafide passenger and he had fallen off the train due to his own negligence, a single-judge bench of justice MM Sathaye on April 21 observed that "there is sufficient material on record to hold that the deceased was a bonafide passenger who died as a result of an untoward incident." The deceased, Vilas Jondhale, was in his thirties. Father to two minor sons, he fell off a running train in the early hours of August 28, 2018, and died in hospital later the same day. His wife Suvarna Jondhale, sons aged 14 and 11 years, and his parents Sambhaji and Shobha had moved the high court challenging an order of the Railway Claims Tribunal, Mumbai bench that had dismissed their claim for compensation on February 14, 2022. The family claimed that Vilas was traveling from Hingoli in Marathwada to Kalyan. At Khadavali Station in Thane close to 6am, he accidentally fell out of the running train on platform no. 2 after being allegedly pushed by a crowd. Vilas had bought a second class ticket for the journey which was also recorded in the panchnama. His family thus claimed that he was a bonafide passenger who died in an untoward incident. The railway authorities, however, claimed that Vilas's ticket was planted and his death was not on account of an "untoward incident". "On investigation by the enquiry officer, it was found that the deceased died while traveling carelessly near/ on the doorstep/ foot board and died during the treatment in the hospital..deceased himself was responsible for the said accident and the respondent (Central Railway) could not be held liable," railway authorities told the court. The authorities also claimed that Vilas's ticket was not genuine as he had travelled from Hingoli to Aurangabad, whereas Hingoli was not on the route of Nandigram Express, which his family claimed he had boarded. Falling from the footboard clearly amounted to negligence, an offence under section 156 of the Railways Act, the court was told. The court, however, noted that Vilas's father had stepped into the witness box before the tribunal and said that his son had started from his native place, Hingoli, on August 27, 2018 and broke his journey in Aurangabad to meet his relatives. He bought a ticket from Aurangabad to Kalyan aboard the Nandigram Express at 9:50pm that day and met with the accident at Khadavli at about 6am on August 28, 2018. "There is no reason to disbelieve his evidence, in the absence of any contrary evidence brought on record," Justice Sathaye said. Setting aside the railway tribunal's order, the court asked the railways to pay the family Rs.8 lakh as compensation with 9 % interest per annum since the day of the incident....