The body of the digital communications manager of the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) was found in a bush along the railway tracks between Jonha and Kita in Jharkhand on Tuesday afternoon – almost a full day after he went missing while travelling from Ranchi to Patna on the Jan Shatabdi Express on Monday.RPF Ranchi Post Inspector Shishupal Kumar told The Indian Express that Devpalik Gupta was suspected to have fallen off the moving train.Gupta, 31, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district, was travelling on the Jan Shatabdi Express (12366) with two JSP associates, Gautam Kumar and Nishant Kumar, both aged around 24.Nishant, talking to The Indian Express, questioned the time taken in locating the body, which was found on the tracks between the first and second station on the train route. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Iimcaa Ddaakj (@iimc.alumni)//www.instagram.com/embed.jsHe also alleged that he, along with Gautam, was detained by the GRP in Ranchi.Nishant said no FIR has been registered a day after the incident. “First, it took them a long time to locate the body which was right next to a railway track and then, we (Gautam and him) were held in separate rooms and not allowed to talk to each other,” he said.IG, Railways, Michael Raj denied the allegation, saying they had not been detained and were only being questioned.Story continues below this ad“The body has just been found. The complaint has been received. Whatever further action is required will be taken according to the law,” he told The Indian Express.Kumar Saurabh Singh, National Spokesperson of JSP, wrote on X: “Devpalik and his team had been continuously working behind the official pages and other social media campaigns associated with Jan Suraaj for the past 4 years… We request Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri @HemantSorenJMM Ji to direct senior officials for a prompt and impartial investigation into this matter.”He said party chief Prashant Kishor has been in continuous contact with Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and senior officers of the Jharkhand Police since Monday night, adding, “This is an extremely painful and heartbreaking (development) for all of us.”According to the details shared by Gupta’s batchmate and former JSP colleague Gunjan Goswami, the three (Gupta, Nishant and Gautam) boarded the train around 2.30 pm.Story continues below this adGoswami said around 25 minutes after boarding, Gupta went to the pantry car to order food, telling his associates that he would return shortly. “When he did not come back after 15-20 minutes, Nishant and Gautam called him but his phone was switched off,” Goswami said.The associates then searched the pantry car and approached the travelling ticket examiner (TTE), who called RPF personnel to help search the train, including the washrooms. However, they could not find Gupta anywhere. The train had also not stopped anywhere between Ranchi and Muri – the first station after the Jharkhand capital – negating the possibility of Gupta deboarding the train.“The associates lodged a missing-person complaint through Rail Madad. When the train stopped at Muri, RPF personnel searched it again but Gupta was not found. Nishant and Gautam continued towards Bokaro, reaching there at around 4.30 pm, and searched the train further,” Goswami said.“They also tried locating Gupta’s phone through Apple’s Find My Device feature, but the location displayed was from around six hours ago,” Goswami added.Story continues below this adGautam and Nishant then approached the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Bokaro railway station where they were allegedly told that the matter fell under Muri’s jurisdiction. Goswami said they then went to Muri where they were told to approach Ranchi since the train had originated there.“We have been trying to get an FIR registered since around 6 pm (Monday). Our primary concern was to find him. We wanted a team to be sent out to search for him,” Goswami said, adding that a complaint was eventually received after intervention through senior police officials.Goswami said the associates repeatedly urged the police to search the railway tracks. He said they were told around 8.30 pm on Monday that a team had left Ranchi and that the phone’s last location had been traced to Gangaghat station.However, when Goswami called the station master at Gangaghat later that night, he was told that no information about a search team reaching the station was available. He also contacted GRP Ranchi, where, he alleged, officials could not confirm whether a team had been sent to patrol the tracks or not.Story continues below this adGoswami said a search operation was eventually intensified Tuesday morning with local journalists and forest officials also helping coordinate the effort. Gupta’s body was found around 12.30-1 pm, he said. Gupta’s brother subsequently identified the body.An unnatural death case was being processed, and a separate case would be registered at Anagara police station, Inspector Kumar said.When asked about the CCTV footage inside the train, Kumar said the train Gupta was travelling in did not have cameras inside.