Jan Suraaj digital manager found dead a day after going missing

Ranchi: Devpalik Gupta, a 21-year-old digital communication manager for Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party, who went missing while travelling by train from Ranchi to Patna, was found dead under suspicious circumstances on Tuesday.

According to Jan Suraaj, Devpalik went missing from the train on Monday. He was found dead on Tuesday afternoon in a forested area near Muri Junction in Ranchi.

Kumar Saurabh Singh, a national spokesperson for Jan Suraaj, confirmed that his body had been found and said the police were investigating the matter. However, it remains to be seen whether the death was accidental or a criminal act.

Originally from Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in Delhi, Devpalik Gupta held a key role in managing digital media for the Jan Suraaj Party.

According to his family and colleagues, he was travelling to Patna on Monday aboard the Ranchi-Patna Jan Shatabdi Express (Train No. 12366), occupying seat 50 in coach C-2 and accompanied by two associates.

At around 3 pm that day, shortly before the train reached Muri station, he went towards the pantry car to place a food order but never returned to his seat.

When his companions began searching for him after some time, they found that his mobile phone was switched off. A search was conducted throughout the train and at Muri station with the assistance of the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, but he could not be found.

Upon reaching Bokaro, the passengers filed a complaint through the Rail Madad app. It is alleged that a jurisdictional dispute between the RPF and the Government Railway Police (GRP) caused a delay of over six hours in registering an FIR. The FIR was eventually filed in Ranchi at 9 pm on Monday.

Devpalik’s colleagues have levelled serious allegations against the police administration, claiming that it was lax during the initial hours and failed to conduct an intensive search operation throughout the night.

Following the incident, Jan Suraaj national spokesperson Kumar Saurabh Singh took to X, tagging Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and the Ranchi district administration and urging immediate action.

A joint team of the police and the GRP has taken custody of the body and is completing the necessary legal formalities.

Further investigation will be conducted based on the postmortem report.