Begunkodor railway station is a Haunted railway station of

Ranchi railway division Ranchi railway division is one of the four railway divisions under South Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways. This railway division was formed on 1 April 2003 and its headquarter is located at Ranchi in the state of Jharkhand of India. Kha ...

of the

South Eastern Railway zone The South Eastern Railway (abbreviated SER) is one of the 19 railway zones in India and Part of Eastern Railways. It is headquartered at Garden Reach, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It comprises Adra railway division, Chakradharpur railway divis ...

of the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

. It serves the nearby area of

Begunkodor Begunkodor (Bengali: বেগুনকোদর) is a census town in the Jhalda II CD block in the Jhalda subdivision of the Purulia district of West Bengal near its border with Jharkhand, situated 46 km away from district town Purulia. ...

and

Jhalda Jhalda is a city and a municipality in Purulia district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Jhalda subdivision. Geography Location Jhalda is located at . It has an average elevation of . According to the ''Distri ...

town in the

Purulia district Purulia district (Pron: puruliːaː) is one of the twenty-three districts of West Bengal state in Eastern India. Purulia is the administrative headquarters of the district. Some of the other important towns of Purulia district are Raghunathpur- ...

in the Indian state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

. Passengers deserted the station and it had come to be known as haunted in Railway records. The station was listed by Railways as one of its 10 haunted stations in India.

History

Begunkodor station was set up by the joint efforts of the queen of

Santals The Santal or Santhal are an Austroasiatic speaking Munda ethnic group in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar and A ...

, Lachan Kumari and Indian Railways in the year 1960.

Controversy

According to the villagers of Begunkodor, in 1967, a railway employee reported the sighting of a woman's

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

, and it was rumored that she had died in a railway accident. The next day he told people about it but they ignored him. A seemingly first-hand account of the incident was published, with details of what had actually happened at the time. The real trouble started when the dead bodies of the station master and his family were found in their quarters. The station was subsequently closed as trains stopped making halts here due to alleged paranormal phenomena. In the late 1990s the villagers formed a committee and asked the officials to reopen the station. In 2007, local villagers wrote to then

Railway minister A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructure. ...

Smt.

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

and

CPIM The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the nati ...

leader

Basudeb Acharia Basudeb Acharia (11 July 1942 – 13 November 2023) was an Indian Bengali-Tamil politician and a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) political party. His ancestors were originally from Present-day Tamil Nadu, who settled in Bengal ...

, who belongs to

Purulia Purulia is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Purulia district. It is located on the north of the Kangsabati River. Geography Location Purulia is located at . It has an average elev ...

and was member of the parliamentary standing committee on Railways at the time. But the haunted tag remains. Acharia said that railway employees had made up the story to avoid being posted there. After 42 years, in August 2009, the railway station was finally reopened as a passenger train halt, by former Railway minister Mamata Banerjee. However, regularly 10 trains halt here, but passengers still avoid using the station after sunset. It is believed that twice a week girl is seen running at with the train on the same day when she died. Few of the paranormal investigators has confirmed presence of abnormal electromagnetic waves at the station on specific time and on specific day of the week. Many ghost hunters have visited the station repeatedly. Presently Begunkodor railway station was being touted by certain people for some time as a ghost tourist spot to attract visitors.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=May 2019 Railway stations in Purulia district Ranchi railway division 1960 establishments in West Bengal Reportedly haunted locations in India