Maharashtra: The shooting incident on board a running train near Palghar railway station has sent shockwaves throughout the country. On Monday, a Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable shot dead four persons with his automatic weapon on Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express shortly after 5 am. In the shocking incident, an RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) and three other passengers lost their lives. The Railways official informed that a total of four RPF personnel, including the accused, were escorting the train from Gujarat's Surat station. According to reports, an FIR has been registered against the accused Chetan who has been officially arrested. He will be produced in court on Tuesday.
Western Railway on Monday evening said that a high-level committee headed by ADG (RPF) is constituted to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the incident.
The accused is mentally unstable
A senior police official while sharing information regarding the incident claimed that the Constable, identified as Chetan Kumar Choudhary is mentally unstable. According to reports, the accused started his job in Railways on December 2, 2009, and was posted in Bhavnagar Division. Earlier in January, he had asked for a transfer to the Mumbai division citing the poor health of his elderly mother.
He tried to escape
The incident occurred in Palghar which is around 100 km from Mumbai. According to the official, Choudhary opened fire on his escort duty in-charge ASI Tika Ram Meena in the running train and shortly after this, he went to another bogie and shot dead three other passengers. The official said that after killing the four passengers, the accused tried to escape from the train between Mira Road and Dahisar.
Choudhary was nabbed later
Later, the Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel nabbed him and seized his weapon. Currently, Choudhary, the accused is in the custody of the Mira Road Railway police.
He fired four bullets at ASI
The accused Chetan Kumar fired 4 bullets at ASI Tika Ram Meena, two bullets at two passengers and one bullet at one passenger. The passengers of coaches B5 and S6, who were shot dead, have been identified as Abdul Kader Bhai Mohd Hussain (58) and Asgar. Asgar was a labourer and used to make bangles. He was coming to Mumbai to look for work.
Four-member team was escorting the train
According to a senior railway police official, the four-member team earlier escorted Dadar-Porbandar Saurashtra Express up to Surat station the previous day. While returning from there, they were guarding the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express where the heart-wrenching incident happened.
Constable was attached to the Lower Parel RPF post
In an interaction with PTI, Western Railway's (WR) chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said that the accused constable was attached to the Lower Parel RPF post here. On the other hand, ASI Tika Ram Meena was attached to the Dadar RPF post.
The escort party boarded train in Surat
Earlier on Sunday, at around 2.01 pm, the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express departed from Rajasthan's Jaipur station. The train arrived at Surat station at 2.47 am on Monday, here, the escort party boarded the train. The train was about 25 minutes later than its scheduled time and reached Borivali station in Mumbai at 6.21 am. Before reaching Borivali station, the train stopped at its official halt Vapi in Gujarat, from where it departed one minute late at 4.08 am.
Alarm chain pulling happened
Thakur further informed that an alarm chain pulling happened in the train near Dahisar station, where the accused constable jumped and ran away. The train was held up at Borivali station for about an hour from 6.21 am to 7.15 am, before it left from there and reached its final destination Mumbai Central station at 8.07 am, about 1.12 hours late, as per the train's running status.
Ex-gratia announced for Kin of ASI
According to an official, an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh has been announced for the kin of deceased ASI Meena. WR spokesperson Sumit Thakur said that Meena's kin will be given Rs 15 lakh from the Railway Suraksha Kalyan Nidhi (fund), apart from funeral expenses of Rs 20,000.
Ex-gratia for the kin of other victims
His kin will also get a sum from the death-cum-retirement gratuity and group insurance scheme, the official said. Asked about compensation for the families of the other three victims of the train firing incident, Thakur said, "Ex-gratia will be given."
