The tragic duo killed by a subway train in Manhattan last weekend were hugging and kissing on the platform before ending up on the tracks, where they were struck, law enforcement sources said.
Navam Kaul and Malaika Chitre, both 24, were seen in an affectionate embrace shortly before the tragedy at the Spring Street subway station around 3:15 a.m. Sunday, the sources said.
Kaul appeared to lose his balance and fall onto the tracks, hitting his head – prompting Chitre to follow him down to help, according to the sources.
The two promising young professionals from New Jersey were caught on camera sitting on the tracks before they were hit by an incoming No. 4 train.
The haunting footage of their final moments shows the duo was seemingly calm before the horrifying collision.
The operator didn’t have enough time to hit the brakes before the train struck them, according to sources.
Police were investigating whether the two were so wasted that they didn’t understand the gravity of the situation until it was too late, sources previously told The Post.
Investigators do not believe it to be a double-suicide, sources said.
Chitre and Kaul were longtime friends and recent Rutgers University graduates who just started embarking on their professional careers, loved ones have said.
They grew up in matching bucolic corners of Central Jersey suburbia just 11 miles apart.
“There’s nothing in his life that would make him do anything stupid,” said Rajnikant Pipalia, whose son counted Kaul as a good pal growing up in Sayreville together.
Chitre’s family home is located in South Brunswick’s sprawling Summerfield development, similar to Kaul’s planned townhouse community in Sayreville’s Colony Club.
The communities also share a strong South Asian presence — a common heritage that appears to have helped connect the duo when they entered the elite Garden State university.
“They (Kaul and Chitre) grew up in the same world,” Pipalia said. “They’re all part of the same friends circle, the same South Asian group hanging out together, enjoying the same festivals.”
Friends of the tragic victims said it was deeply out of character for the duo in the prime of their lives to have ended up on the tracks.
“I was shocked. He was a financial analyst, doing everything right,” said Sagid Qureshi, Kaul’s next-door neighbor in Sayreville.
“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.”
After graduating together from Rutgers in 2024, Chitre landed a job as a quality operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals and started studying to become a doctor of pharmacy at Temple University, according to her LinkedIn.
Kaul’s LinkedIn indicated he worked as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg after graduating. A source with the company said he was a contract worker and ended the job in May.
