Train bloodshed: Singh strangled colleague, snatched 'wrong' rifle; gets police custody till Aug 7

A witness and complainant in the Mumbai-Jaipur Superfast Express training bloodshed incident has revealed that the prime accused Chetankumar Singh, had tried to strangulate him, then grabbed an automatic weapon shortly before the killing spree.

The statement, part of the FIR, is recorded by Amay G. Acharya, 26, RPF Constable posted in Mahalaxmi in Mumbai.

Singh, who was detained on Monday and then formally arrested in the evening, was produced before a Borivali Court Magistrate and remanded to police custody till August 7 on Tuesday afternoon.

Acharya said he was on duty from July 28 on the Saurashtra Mail to Okha (Gujarat) along with the In-Charge Tikaram Meena, 58, Hawa Narendra Parmar, 58 and Constable Chetankumar Singh, 33, in a weeklong cycle.

On July 30 night, around 9.06 p.m., the team left with armed weapons on that train and it reached Surat at 1.11 a.m. on July 31, from where they caught the Jaipur-Mumbai Superfast Express at 2.53 a.m.

ASI Meena and Singh were posted in an air-conditioned bogie while Acharya and Parmar guarded the sleeper coach nearby.

Around 3.15 a.m., when Acharya met Meena in B-2 AC coach, Singh complained of ill-health and told his boss (Meena) that he wanted to get off at Valsad station.

Meena cajoled Singh saying that barely after a couple of hours, the train would reach Mumbai and suggested he should take rest till then.

But Singh was adamant and Meena called up Inspector Harish Chandra at Mumbai Central Control to apprise him of the situation, who advised that Singh should continue the journey till Mumbai where he could take treatment and rest.

Singh was in not mood after which Meena spoke to the Assistant Security Commissioner Sujit Kumar Pandey, but to no avail.

Acharya went and brought a soft drink for Singh which he didn’t drink, so Meena asked him to take Singh’s rifle and allow him to take rest.

Acharya accompanied Singh to the B-4 coach where he lay down on a vacant seat, but he could not rest for long.

Around 15 minutes later, he went to Acharya and asked for his rifle, but the latter refused and advised him to relax.

Enraged, Singh repeatedly demanded his rifle and when Acharya refused, he started shouting, grabbed his neck and started strangulating him and snatched the rifle from him, and ran off.

Just then, Acharya realised that Singh had taken the wrong rifle and he informed ASC Pandey of the same, who directed him to tell Meena.

Both Meena and Acharya approached Singh and said he had mistakenly taken the wrong rifle belonging to Acharya, and Singh returned it and collected his own gun.

Singh remained in a foul mood, and stubbornly refused to listen to either Meena or Acharya, when the time was around 5 a.m.

Just as Acharya was leaving the spot, he spotted Singh unlocking the safety catch of his rifle and sensing something bad could happen, alerted Meena who asked him to maintain calm, even as Acharya walked down to the pantry car.

Just as the train approached Vaitarna station at 5.25 a.m., he got a call from the RPF constable Kuldeep Rathore at Nalasopara that Meena had been shot in the train.

Acharya immediately called Assistant Security Commissioner Sujit Kumar Pandey and informed him about the shootout and rushed to the B-5 coach, when he saw two-three terrified passengers rushing towards him.

Pandey also said that Meena was shot dead, called up Parmar to ensure his safety, and informed the RPF Control of the development on the running train.

After the shooting spree, Singh delivered a homily mentioning Pakistan and political names before the terrified passengers and his colleagues.

When Acharya ran towards the B-5 coach, he saw Singh coming from the opposite direction, in a rage and the gun in his hand.

“Thinking that he (Singh) might shoot me, I turned back and stopped in the sleeper coach… After 10 minutes someone (passengers) pulled the chain and the train had halted between Mira Road and Dahisar station. When I peeped outside, I saw Singh running on the tracks, still with the rifle in a firing position,” said Acharya.

In between, Singh fired at the train and Acharya hid in a toilet for sometime and then saw Singh walking on the tracks toward Mira Road station.

After 15 minutes, the train started again and when Acharya entered the S-6 coach saw one passenger there in a pool of blood and another in the pantry car, as the train stopped at Borivali station at 6.20 a.m.

By 6.30 a.m., all hell broke loose and later it emerged that Singh had shot dead his boss Meena and three other passengers on the running train, attempted to escape but was caught by RPF and GRP men at Mira Road.

The Railway has set up a 5-member committee for a ‘comprehensive inquiry’ into the tragedy comprising the Principal Chief Security Commissioners of the Western Railway and Central Railway, Principal Chief Commercial Manager of North-Western Railway, Principal Chief Medical Director of North-Central Railway and Principal Chief Personnel of West-Central Railway.