Railway Protection Force (RPF) Constable Chetan Singh, who allegedly shot dead four people, including his senior and three passengers, onboard the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express on Monday was remanded to police custody till August 7 on Tuesday.
Singh, 34, was arrested with his automatic weapon while trying to flee after passengers pulled the chain of the train which stopped near Mira Road station (on the Mumbai suburban network) around 6am, but the motive behind the chilling incident was not yet known.
RPF assistant sub-inspector or ASI Tika Ram Meena and another passenger was shot dead in the B-5 coach after 5am. Singh then shot dead another passenger in the pantry car five coaches away and went on to kill one more passenger in S-6 coach, which is the 8th bogie from the B-5 coach, news agency PTI reported.
According to the official, the alarm chain in the train was pulled at 5.59am. As the train came to a halt near Mira Road station, Singh jumped down on the railway tracks with his weapon and started running. But he was nabbed by personnel of the Government Railway Police (GRP) and RPF after a chase and his weapon was seized.
'Constable Chetan Singh was not feeling well'
{{/usCountry}}According to the official, the alarm chain in the train was pulled at 5.59am. As the train came to a halt near Mira Road station, Singh jumped down on the railway tracks with his weapon and started running. But he was nabbed by personnel of the Government Railway Police (GRP) and RPF after a chase and his weapon was seized.
'Constable Chetan Singh was not feeling well'
{{/usCountry}}A GRP official, citing the FIR, told PTI that complainant constable Amay Ghanshyaam Acharya said Singh was not feeling well so ASI Meena advised him to rest and take medicines when the train arrives in Mumbai.
The complainant said constable Singh went to take rest, but after 15 minutes, he woke up and started demanding his rifle. When Acharya refused to give him the weapon, he tried to strangle him and managed to take the rifle and left the spot in anger, he said.
Acharya then went to the pantry car and narrated the incident to his seniors. Later, he came to know that ASI Meena was injured in the firing, said the GRP official.
Fearing that Singh might attack him as well, Acharya hid in a sleeper coach. The assailant got down from the train and started walked on the tracks between Meera Road and Dahisar stations. Acharya asked passengers to close the windows and saw Singh firing on the train indiscriminately, said the official, quoting from the FIR.
After 15 minutes, when the train started moving towards Mumbai, he saw four bodies, including that of ASI Meena, and when it stopped at Borivali station, all bodies were brought out and kept on the platform, he added.
The bodies were brought to state-run JJ Hospital in central Mumbai around 9.15pm and their post-mortem examination was being conducted, said a spokesperson of the medical facility late in the night.
Who is RPF constable Chetan Singh?
A resident of Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, Singh was arrested and booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 302 (murder), and the Arms Act.
According to railway officials, the accused constable was transferred to Mumbai from the Bhavnagar division last March and had recently visited his native place Hathras. He joined duty on July 17. A forensic team visited the B-5 coach and the pantry car of the train and collected samples, a police official said.
His family includes his wife, two children aged 6 and 8, and his parents.
The weapon provided to Singh had 20 bullets and 12 of them were fired by him, said the GRP official.
Deceased passengers
Two of the deceased passengers were identified by the Railway police as Abdul Kadarbhai Mohammed Hussain Bhanpurwala (48), a resident of Nalasopara in Palghar and Asgar Abbas Sheikh (48), a resident of Madhubani in Bihar, while the third victim was yet to be identified.
A senior RPF official said ASI Meena hailed from Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan. He was supposed to retire in 2025.