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Army doctor put own grief aside to treat wounded

The 68-year-old former army doctor joined in the rescue and relief efforts at the accident spot near Rafiganj after somehow managing to exit from a smashed coach.

He treated wounded passengers while his wife and daughter were battling for life in the pitch darkness of their compartment.

Brigadier K P D Samanta, sub-area commander (Bihar and Orissa), told the Press Trust of India that Aneja, after making his way out of one of the smashed coaches, informed army rescuers about his trapped daughter and wife and at once joined the jawans in their salvage operations.

When told that his wife had been pulled out of the bogie but his daughter had died, Aneja stoically told the jawans to send his wife to a hospital and daughter to the mortuary. "I cannot leave the passengers to die... I feel sorry for my daughter, but then she is dead," he said.

Aneja had to be forcibly moved from the accident scene. He was then shifted to the military hospital at Gaya to be reunited with his wife, after having worked for over 10 hours alongside the rescuers.

"Indeed, for an armyman his own welfare comes last and always last... these are the words of the pledge we take while passing out of the military academy," Brig Samanta said. "Once an armyman, always an armyman."

PTI

The Rajdhani Express Accident: Full coverage

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