Alert commuter caught murderer

Deepak Burman would never have been caught — were it not for the alertness of a 21-year-old railway commuter.

Deepak Burman would never have been caught — were it not for the alertness of a 21-year-old railway commuter.

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Burman, a jewellery designer, had thrown a suitcase containing the body of his friend from a local train after murdering him on Thursday.

Burman (31), a resident of Takshila Nagar in Jogeshwari (E), was arrested on Friday, after he confessed to murdering his friend, Mohan Jagtap.

He told the police that Jagtap had loaned him Rs 5,000. Burman had returned Rs 4,500, but Jagtap wanted the entire amount. An argument broke out, which turned violent.

After strangling Jagtap on Thursday, Burman stuffed his body in a suitcase and threw it off a Churchgate-bound local train. He was caught by Nishant Kumar (21), a fellow commuter, who found it suspicious.

Burman had transported the body in a 26-inch strolley and pushed it off the train between Bhayandar and Naigaon stations when Kumar spotted him. He had boarded the 9.12 Churchgate fast from Naigaon.
“I was standing at the left entrance of the compartment, Burman was standing beside me. He accidentally kept the bag on my foot and I realised it was exceptionally heavy,” said Kumar, a class IV employee with Western Railways.

When Burman asked Kumar to alert him when the train reached Bhyandar creek, Kumar, thinking Burman wanted to alight at Bhayandar, told him his station would come on the right of the compartment. As the train passed by the creek, Burman pushed the bag out.

“He wanted to throw the bag in the creek but due to its heavy weight, it landed on the tracks,” said Senior Inspector N H Sheikh of the Andheri Government Railway police (GRP).

Kumar asked him about it, and was told it contained old clothes. “But I didn’t see why anyone would travel so far to throw away clothes when he could have easily dumped it in a dustbin,” Kumar said.
Burman said the bag contained some rations (rice and pulses). “I asked him why he was throwing these expensive things,” he added.

He asked Burman for his identity card. Burman gave him his driving licence. “At Andheri station, he began trembling. I held him by his hand and collar and took him to the Andheri GRP,” Kumar said.

The case has been transferred to the MIDC police station. “We’re searching for the rickshaw in which Burman came to the station,” said Pradip Suryavanshi, senior inspector at MIDC police station.