Railway firing: Victim's wife opposes fresh mental health evaluation of accused

Railway firing: Victim's wife opposes fresh mental health evaluation of accused

Mumbai, The widow of a victim in the 2023 railway firing incident on Wednesday urged the sessions court to revoke its order directing fresh mental health evaluation for the accused former RPF constable Chetan Singh Chaudhary.

Railway firing: Victim's wife opposes fresh mental health evaluation of accused

The intervention application, filed through advocates Karim Pathan, Fazal and Shehzad Pathan, said the accused was "weaponizing the judicial process" to stall the trial which is in an advanced stage.

Choudhary is accused of shooting dead his senior colleague, Assistant Sub-Inspector Tika Ram Meena, and three Muslim passengers on board the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express near Palghar railway station in Maharashtra on July 31, 2023.

Citing a prior medical report, Umesa Khatoon, wife of victim Asgar Shaikh, claimed that the accused's "mental fitness was already conclusively determined".

The District Mental Health Review Board, Thane, had conducted a comprehensive mental health assessment of the accused and concluded that he was mentally stable and fit to stand a trial. Hence, a fresh assessment was not warranted, the application said.

Additional sessions judge Pravin Chatur on March 25 directed the prison authorities to send Choudhary to the Thane mental hospital and submit a report with a specific opinion "as to whether he is fit to stand trial".

The order followed Choudhary's bail plea which cited mental health conditions.

Umesa Khatoon's intervention application said that the court had refused him bail on medical grounds earlier, and he submitted the same medical papers in his fresh bail application. It contained only a bald assertion of mental illness without any proof.

The court has already examined 18 witnesses, and adjourning the trial for a fresh medical assessment would prejudice the prosecution's case, said the plea.

Chaudhary's actions identifying and targeting victims based on their religion while sparing others showed that he was in "complete command of his faculties" during the incident, and the plea of unsound mind was an afterthought, said the application.

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