Two recent Rutgers University graduates, Malaika Chitre and Navam Kaul, both 24, died early Sunday morning after being struck by a Number 4 subway train at the Canal Street station in lower Manhattan.
Authorities are investigating the incident, which occurred around 3:15 a.m. Passengers on the train reported seeing Chitre and Kaul sitting on the tracks, with video footage appearing to show Chitre attempting to pull Kaul towards her shortly before the train struck them. Police are exploring the possibility that alcohol or drugs may have impaired the pair's awareness of the approaching train.
Sources close to the investigation told the New York Post that Kaul may have fallen or climbed onto the tracks, prompting Chitre to follow him in an apparent attempt to rescue him. While a suicide pact has been speculated on social media, investigators have not found a suicide note and are considering multiple scenarios.
Chitre, a pharmacy student at Temple University, was working as a quality operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals in Princeton, New Jersey. She graduated from Rutgers in 2024, where she was involved in the Omega Phi Alpha National Service Sorority and the Ashley Lauren Foundation.
Kaul, who grew up in Sayreville, New Jersey, was employed as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg in New York City for the past year and a half. He also attended Rutgers, where he and Chitre, despite majoring in different fields, became close friends through mutual social circles.
The incident occurred less than a week after a Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker, Moet McCullum, 41, was killed by a D train at the Yankee Stadium station on September 3. McCullum was on the southbound tracks when she was struck. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating that death, along with other agencies.