Several Congress leaders including Leader Of Opposition Rahul Gandhi shared a disturbing video of a man collapsing in an overcrowded train to falsely claim that he died of suffocation and linked it to the June 13 chaos and protest at Patliputra Junction station in Bihar.
BOOM however found that the incident happened onboard the Vivek Express, where a 'migrant worker' collapsed after reported unavailability of 'drug injections'. We spoke to Assam resident Mubarak Hussain, who shot the video. Hussain told BOOM that the footage was shot on June 11 near Srikakulam railway station in Andhra Pradesh in the Vivek Express.
On the night of June 13, a protest at Patliputra Junction was carried out by candidates appearing for the Bihar Police Prohibition Department recruitment examination. Concerned about train shortages and delays ahead of the June 14 exam, protesters blocked railway tracks and stopped trains. Security personnel later used batons and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The Claim
Congress leader Srinivas BV shared the video while criticising the Modi government and questioning administrative negligence. Maharashtra Congress chief spokesperson Atul Patil also posted the video on X. Rahul Gandhi later reposted it amplifying the same false claim.
What We Found: Video Shot Near Srikakulam station, Andhra Pradesh
1. Video Traced to an Assam Resident: We ran a related keyword search and traced the video to an account by one Mubarak Hussain of Guwahati, Assam. Hussain shared it on June 13, 2026 on Instagram, claiming that a tribal man had died on a train after being unable to obtain a drug injection. The post included the hashtag #VivekExpress.
On June 14, the same account shared another video describing the footage as having been recorded before the man's death. The caption stated that the reported death occurred on a train bound to Kerala.
Hussain had earlier shared another video showing a man hanging between two train berths with a sheet tied around them. The same individual appears in the viral video.
2. Confirmation From Videographer: We reached out to Hussain who said that he recorded the footage on his mobile phone while travelling from Guwahati, Assam, to Ernakulam, Kerala, on Vivek Express.
He told BOOM, "The video was recorded around 6:30 pm on June 11 near Srikakulam railway station in Andhra Pradesh. A 'tribal' man sitting on the upper berth opposite me suddenly suffered an 'attack'. Passengers sprinkled water on him and moved him to a lower berth, but he died soon after."
According to Hussain, the man had boarded the train from West Bengal's Malda Town with a friend. The friend reportedly said the deceased was addicted to drugs and that his condition deteriorated because he could not access injections used for addiction.
Hussain, who works at a car-washing centre in Alappuzha, Kerala, said the general coach was overcrowded, making it difficult for a doctor to reach the passenger. After some time, the man's friend and other passengers moved forward with the body.
The passenger also shared the original video with BOOM, including metadata showing the location, date, and time of recording.
3. Vivek Express Route: Further the route of Vivek Express (22504), which runs from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari, shows that it only stops at Kishanganj station in Bihar. To investigate further, we contacted the railway police at Palasa, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, and Visakhapatnam, stations along the train's route in Andhra Pradesh but found no record of a passenger's death on June 11. Balaji Kiran, CPRO of South Coast Railway, told BOOM, "No death of a Vivek Express passenger was reported across the Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada divisions on June 11." This confirms that the video is not from Bihar. BOOM however was not able to independently verify the incident of the death of the passenger.
4. East Central Railway Refutes The Claim: East Central Railway also issued a statement on X stating that the viral video was not recorded at Patliputra station. Responding to Rahul Gandhi's post, the railway zone wrote: "The incident is not from Patliputra station. It is also categorically stated that no information regarding the death of any person has been received from any source."
(Additional Reporting: Jagriti Trisha)
