RPF sacks cop over hate crime on train

Singh, who killed his first two victims in coach B-5, had moved through the train picking passengers with visible markers of their Muslim identity and shooting them dead

Railway Protection Force constable Chetan Singh, 33, accused of killing four people on board the 12956 Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express on July 31, has been fired by the Indian Railways. A five-member high powered committee constituted by the Railway Board to investigate the events of July 31st , recommended the dismissal, confirmed one of the members who requested that he not be quoted.

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Singh is at present lodged at Thane Central jail. While the crime is being investigated by the Government Railway Police, the RPF have moved an application before the Borivali court seeking permission to question Singh for their internal inquiry. The five-member committee headed by Sanjay Sankrityayan, additional director general, RPF, along with other senior railway officials in addition to investigating the crime will also chalk out solutions to prevent any future recurrence. The committee’s mandate is to study the overall working conditions of the RPF, the use of weapons, how they patrol inside trains and railway stations, and whether RPF’s working conditions are leading to any repercussions on the health of the force.

But for investigators at the GRP it is becoming clear that Singh was a lone wolf motivated by hate. A GRP officer who is part of the investigations told HT that according to eye witnesses on the train, Singh, after killing his senior officer and three Muslim passengers, wanted to continue his killing spree but stopped when passengers in coach S-5 created a huge ruckus. Singh, who killed his first two victims in coach B-5, had moved through the train picking passengers with visible markers of their Muslim identity and shooting them dead. When he reach coach S-6 he killed his last victim, Asghar Ali, a bangle-maker from Jaipur before making a hate speech against the community and demanding that other passengers record it. CCTV footage from the train obtained by the investigators now shows that after his speech Singh then moved to coach S-5 and pointed his loaded gun at a burqa-clad woman but stopped when other passengers bravely gathered around and began shouting at him.

“Singh had seven rounds remaining in his automatic ARM rifle and wanted to kill more people for which purpose he moved to coach S-5. In the coach he pointed his gun at a burqa clad woman and threatened her,” said a GRP officer. The woman and her husband who had boarded the train at Jaipur have since told investigators that as he threatened the woman, other passengers gathered and they began shouting and screaming at Singh which is when he walked away. The couple told the GRP that they thought Singh had exhausted his ammunition but after they got off the train they were informed that Singh had still more bullets left but possibly got frightened after the passengers began shouting at him.

In addition to the woman, whose identity GRP has not shared, Singh had also threatened another passenger, Jaffar Khan, who was travelling in coach B-2 and where Singh had picked his second victim, Sayyed Saifuddin, dragged him at gun point to the pantry car and shot him dead there. Khan has given a detailed account of his interaction with Singh to the investigators.

The GRP investigation has also revealed Singh’s senior ASI Tikaram Meena’s last words as he lay dying. A statement by a passenger whose identity is not being revealed, has told the GRP that he had woken up at 4.50 am to go to the bathroom when he saw Meena and Chetan Singh speaking in the passageway near the door. He walked past them and entered the train bathroom. Whilst inside, he heard the sound of gunfire and heard the words, “Hai Ram, Maar Diya.”

The man told the GRP that he hid inside the bathroom and called his mother to narrate what he had seen and heard. His mother, in turn, called his uncle who called him and instructed him to not get out of the bathroom. After some time had elapsed, the passenger, described by the GRP as a man in his mid-20s, opened the door slightly and saw Meena’s body in the passageway. “He got so terrified that he locked himself back in the bathroom and emerged only when the train stopped at Borivali station an hour and half later,” said the investigator.

Yet another witness who was on the berth next to Singh’s second victim, Abdul Kadar Bhanpurwala, and who had chatted with the 61 year old deceased during the journey, told the GRP that Bhanpurwala had moved his luggage close to the door at Vaitarna, preparing to get off at the next station. But neither Bhanpurwala nor the witness heard the shot that killed Meena. Investigators say there was a 20-minute gap between the killing of the two men in coach B-5. The witness, described as a 21- year-old male, told GRP he saw Bhanpurwala gather his luggage and walk towards the door and after a few minutes he saw Singh walk past him and seconds later he had shot dead Bhanpurwala near the B-5 door.

The GRP have also spoken to a train guard who tried to give chase to Singh after he got off near Borivali after the chain had been pulled by some passengers. Singh however threatened him with his gun and told him to return to the train. “That is when the guard saw the blood on him and climbed up the train again,” said an officer.

The GRP has booked Singh for hate crimes, murder, kidnapping, wrongful restraint and wrongful confinement under the relevant sections of the IPC.