Indian American from Dayton, NJ, Malaika Chitre, a Quality Operations Specialist @ Acadia Pharmaceuticals, and Nepali American Sayreville, NJ’s Navam Kaul, a Financial Data Analyst @ Bloomberg, were looking ahead to a promising future. But their lives were cut short when both died, hit by a train at the Spring Street Station, in the New York City subway line in the very early hours of Sunday, September 13, 2026.
Both the 24-year olds were graduates of Rutgers University, and described as long-time friends by those who knew them, quoted in several media reports.
Chitre was pursuing a doctorate in pharmaceutical science from Temple University School of Pharmacy, her Linkedin profile shows. She did her Major in Public Health and Minor in Business Administration at Rutgers.
Kaul had been with Bloomberg a year and 5 months, going by his Linkedin profile, after getting an MBA in 2024.
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“I was shocked. He was a financial analyst, doing everything right,” Sagid Qureshi, Kaul’s next-door neighbor in Sayreville, told the New York Post, adding, “From what I understand she was doing well, too – good people doing so well, with their whole lives ahead of them. It’s just so sad.”
The Post noted that family members of Chitre “lambasted” media reports on the incident which were rife with speculation, even as the NYPD said investigations were ongoing.
But an IANS report said Kaul fell onto the tracks and Chitre jumped in to save him and pull him out.
NJ.com in a September 15 report quoting police said officers responded to the station at about 3:14 a.m. early Sunday the 13th, and found the two dead at the scene.
“We are saddened to learn of the tragic death of these two former students,” Dory Devlin, assistant vice president of news and media relations at Rutgers, is quoted saying in a statement carried by nj.com.