Devpalik Gupta, the digital communications manager of Jan Suraaj, was travelling on the Ranchi-Patna Janshatabdi Express when he went missing on Monday. His body was found a day later.Devpalik Gupta and Prashant KishorRanchi,Oct 27, 2026 18:00 ISTThe digital communications manager of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), who went missing from a train to Patna on Monday afternoon, was found dead near railway tracks in Ranchi 24 hours later.

Devpalik Gupta, 31, was travelling with two of his colleagues on the Ranchi-Patna Janshatabdi Express when he suddenly couldn't be traced.Jan Suraaaj national spokesperson Kumar Saurabh Singh said an FIR was registered at 9 pm on Monday. His body was recovered from bushes near the railway tracks in Jarwadih, which falls under the Angara police station limits in capital Ranchi.

His body and other items were recovered from bushes near the railway tracks in Jarwadih VANISHES FROM TRAIN, FOUND DEAD A DAY LATERSenior police officer Gaurav Goswami told India Today that a preliminary examination indicated that Devpalik might have suffered a head injury. He said it appeared that Devpalik might have fallen from the moving train, even though the circumstances are still being investigated.Citing the preliminary examination, senior police officer Gaurav Goswami told India Today that Devpalik might have suffered a head injury.

He said it appeared that Devpalik might have fallen from the moving train, though the circumstances are still being investigated. His body has been sent to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi for autopsy.Devpalik's colleague, Gautam Kumar, said the train left for Patna at around 2.25 pm.

He claimed that after 10 minutes, Devpalik went towards the pantry car to get food, PTI reported. It was the last time he and another companion, Nishant, saw Devpalik.

When Devpalik didn't return after two hours, they grew suspicious."We went to the pantry car next to our coach, but did not find him. We checked every coach, but he was nowhere on the train," Gautam said.When the train stopped at Muri Junction, Gautam lodged a complaint with the railway police (GRP).

His body was found in Jarwadih, which sits between Ranchi and Muri, on Tuesday afternoon after frantic searches.Investigators are now trying to establish what happened after Devpalik left his berth. He couldn't have got down at any other station, as Muri is the first stop after the train departed from Ranchi.Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party has demanded an impartial investigation into Devpalik's death.

The party, however, stopped short of ruling out any conspiracy angle behind the incident."We do not know how, or under what circumstances, Devpalik Gupta died. Therefore, we cannot officially claim that there was any political or other conspiracy involved.

If Devpalik was a victim of any conspiracy, political or otherwise, it must be investigated impartially," the party's spokesperson said.WHO WAS DEVPALIK GUPTA?Devpalik, a resident of Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, had been working with Kishor for four years, since the launch of the Jan Suraaj campaign in 2022.After Kishor announced his political plunge in 2024, Devpalik was entrusted with managing the party's official social media pages and other digital campaigns.An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Devpalik was previously associated with several prominent newspapers, news channels and digital platforms.He came into the spotlight earlier this year for spearheading the party's social media campaign during the high-profile Bankipur bypolls. The bypoll was won by Kishor, months after Jan Suraaj failed to open its account in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections.The win gave the fledgling outfit its first-ever seat in the Bihar Assembly and Kishor his first electoral success since entering active politics."During the Bankipur elections, Devpalik Gupta and his team worked tirelessly day and night, 24 hours, to strongly counter the narratives of other parties," Neha Singh Rathore, a social activist, said."Many questions are being raised regarding the circumstances behind his death.

There should be a fair and high-level investigation into this matter," she tweeted.The IIMC Alumni Association also called for a thorough investigation. "Team IIMCAA deeply mourns the tragic loss of Devpalik Gupta (2018-19 batch) under mysterious circumstances in Jharkhand," the association said.- Ends