Two recent Rutgers graduates fatally struck by a subway train in Manhattan have been identified as longtime friends from New Jersey who were beginning promising careers in medicine and finance.
Malaika Chitre, 24, of Dayton, NJ, and Navam Kaul, 24, of Sayreville, NJ, died over the weekend after being hit by a train, according to authorities. The pair had known each other since high school and moved in the same tight-knit social circles through college and beyond, said Rajnikant Pipalia, whose son was close with Kaul.
“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.”
Both Chitre and Kaul graduated from Rutgers University in 2024, their respective LinkedIn accounts show. From there, their paths diverged into demanding professional tracks. Chitre took a position as a quality operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals while simultaneously launching her studies to become a doctor of pharmacy at Temple University. Kaul, meanwhile, secured a role as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg.
“They all did college very well, studied, moved on to Fortune 500 companies,” Pipalia said.
Pipalia said Kaul’s parents immigrated to the United States from Nepal roughly three decades ago. He last saw Kaul about a year prior, noting that the young analyst frequently visited his son.
“There’s nothing in his life that would make him do anything stupid,” he said.
The deaths have sent shockwaves through the New Jersey South Asian community where both victims were raised and maintained deep ties. The friends circle Pipalia described centered on shared cultural celebrations and festivals that marked the rhythm of their social lives together from adolescence through their early twenties.
The weekend incident in Manhattan cut short two trajectories that had just begun. Chitre’s dual commitment to pharmaceutical quality operations and doctoral study suggested a career aimed at the intersection of drug development and patient care. Kaul’s position at Bloomberg placed him within one of the world’s largest financial data and media companies, analyzing the markets and information flows that drive global finance.
Pipalia’s characterization of the pair as having “grown up in the same world” underscored how tightly woven their parallel lives had remained. From suburban New Jersey high school hallways to Rutgers lecture halls and eventually to separate but equally ambitious professional pursuits in Philadelphia and New York, Chitre and Kaul maintained the friendship forged in their shared community.
The circumstances of how the two friends came to be on the subway tracks together remain under investigation. Authorities have not released additional details about the moments leading to the fatal collision.
