NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
New York, NYC, September 15, 2026: Two longtime friends and recent Rutgers University graduates were killed after being struck by a subway train in Manhattan early Sunday, leaving their families and friends searching for answers about how the two 24-year-olds ended up sitting on the tracks.
Malaika Chitre, of Dayton, New Jersey, and Navam Kaul, of Sayreville, were struck by a southbound No. 4 train at the Spring Street subway station at about 3:14 a.m. on September 13, according to police and published reports. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Days later, investigators have not publicly established why the two friends were on the tracks or whether their deaths were accidental or intentional.
Video taken shortly before the collision reportedly shows Chitre and Kaul sitting together on the tracks. The train operator spotted them and attempted to stop the train, but was unable to do so in time, according to reports citing law enforcement sources.
Investigators are looking at several possibilities, including whether one of the friends initially fell or climbed onto the tracks and the other went down in an attempt to help.
Authorities are also investigating whether alcohol or drugs may have played a role. Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that the pair may have been intoxicated or otherwise impaired and may not have fully understood the danger posed by the approaching train. No toxicology findings have been publicly released, however, and intoxication has not been established as the cause of the tragedy.
Reports have also raised the possibility that the deaths were intentional, but there has been no public finding to support that theory. No suicide notes were reportedly discovered, and people who knew the two young adults said such behavior would have been deeply out of character.
The unsettling video of their final moments has provided few answers. According to accounts attributed to the train operator, Chitre appeared to be laughing and pulling Kaul toward her as they sat on the tracks. Investigators have not said what happened in the moments before the video or how the pair initially reached the roadbed.
Friends and neighbors described the deaths as particularly difficult to comprehend because both young adults had recently graduated from college and were beginning promising careers.
Chitre graduated from Rutgers University in 2024 and was working as a quality operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals in Princeton. She had also recently begun pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at Temple University, according to published reports.
Kaul, a 2020 graduate of Sayreville War Memorial High School, also graduated from Rutgers in 2024. He had worked as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg.
“I was shocked. He was a financial analyst, doing everything right,” Kaul’s next-door neighbor Sagid Qureshi told the New York Post.
Chitre has been identified in Indian media reports as being of Indian origin, while reports have described Kaul as being of Nepalese origin.
The deaths have drawn widespread attention not only because of the victims’ young ages but also because of the unanswered question at the center of the tragedy: why two friends with seemingly promising futures were sitting on an active subway track in the middle of the night.
For now, authorities have not announced a definitive explanation.
The investigation remains ongoing, and toxicology findings and other evidence could eventually provide a clearer picture of what happened in the hours and minutes leading up to the fatal collision.
