Mumbai: For a few terrifying minutes in the early morning hours of 31 July, Krishna Kumar Shukla, a coach attendant on the Jaipur-Mumbai-Central Superfast Express, felt fear like never before.
That was the time Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Chetan Bacchu Singh was moving around the train, armed with a rifle, on a murder spree that ultimately claimed four lives across three coaches (including the pantry).
Shukla was assigned to coach B5 — where Singh had shot dead two people — but happened to be in B6 at the time.
Speaking to ThePrint, Shukla said the frightened passengers of the coach stopped him just in time from stepping out.
“Everyone was scared and we locked the door,” he added. “The passengers were telling me not to go out, else even I would have been attacked,” Shukla said.
Two days after the horrific incident, eyewitness accounts and the FIR filed in the matter have helped piece together what allegedly happened on the Jaipur-Mumbai Express on the morning of 31 July.
Singh, according to the statements of his colleagues in the FIR, had been feeling sick that day when he reported for escort duty around 3 am, and allegedly got angry when he was advised to stay back and rest.
Later, he allegedly attacked a colleague over his rifle.
The shooting spree, caught on camera by passengers, followed.
Singh ran across different coaches of the train and the pantry and shot four people — his senior, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Tikaram Meena, and three middle-aged Muslim men identified as Abdul Kadarbhai Mohammed Hussain Bhanpurwala (Palghar, 58), Asgar Abbas Sheikh (Madhubani, 48), and Syed Saifuddin (Hyderabad, 43),
In a video of the incident that has since gone viral, Singh can purportedly be heard saying,“…Agar vote dena hai, agar Hindustan me rehna hai, toh mai kehta hoon, Modi aur Yogi, ye do hain, aur aapke Thackeray (If you want to vote, if you want to live in India, then I say, Modi and Yogi, these are the two, and your Thackeray).”
While the police are verifying the authenticity of the video, railway officials have ruled out a communal angle, and the investigation is focusing on Singh’s mental health.
A “comprehensive mental and psychological health assessment” of the RPF constable is being carried out, according to the Railway Ministry.
Singh is currently in police custody till 7 August.
The prosecution had sought 14-days’ custody, saying in the remand application that it is needed to “assess the accused’s mental condition”.
They added that they “also need to understand whether there was any scuffle between ASI Meena and the accused”. The video wasn’t mentioned in court.
The railways has also set up a five-member committee to conduct a probe into the incident.
Also Read: RPF jawan who killed senior, 3 passengers aboard train ‘was feeling ill, lost his calm’
‘He strangled me’
According to the FIR, Singh boarded the train for escort duty from Surat at 2.53 am, along with fellow RPF constable Ajay Ghanshyaam Acharya, head constable Narendra Parmar, and ASI Meena.
While Singh and Meena were assigned escort duty on the three-tier coach, Acharya and Parmar were to manage the sleeper coaches, the FIR, accessed by ThePrint, says.
Acharya is quoted in the FIR as saying that Singh complained of being sick and wanted to be let off duty, but Meena requested him to take rest instead.
Singh, according to Acharya’s statement, “looked angry” and insisted that a senior be called. When even the senior suggested that Singh stay back and rest, he went away.
Around 10-15 minutes later, Singh got up and started asking Acharya for his rifle. A scuffle allegedly ensued and Singh is said to have walked away with Acharya’s rifle.
“I didn’t give away my rifle, so he tried to attack me and strangled me. So, I was helpless and gave away my rifle,” Acharya is quoted as saying.
When Acharya told Meena about the incident, they told Chetan Singh that he had Acharya’s rifle. Singh then gave back Acharya’s weapon and was handed over his own.
It was around 5.35 am that Acharya said he got a call from a batchmate — Kuldeep Rathod — who told him that Meena had been shot. Rathod was reportedly informed of the incident by Shukla on a phone call.
As Acharya started to go towards B5, he saw Singh with his rifle — “anger on his face” — heading towards B1, Fearing that Singh would shoot him too, Acharya said he went back to a sleeper coach and hid there. He told police that he saw Singh firing rounds.
When the train stopped after 15 minutes, Acharya saw all the four bodies lying in pools of blood.
Police have booked Singh under IPC Section 302 (murder), the Arms Act and the Railways Act.
In their remand application, police said the “accused is not cooperating in the investigation”.
However, Singh’s lawyer Amit Mishra told ThePrint that this was not the case and he was not aware of any non-cooperation from Singh’s side.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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