Mumbai: A court here on Tuesday remanded Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Chetan Singh in the custody of Government Railway Police till August 7 for allegedly shooting dead his senior colleague and three passengers on a moving train.
Seeking his custody, the police told the court that the mental health condition of the accused constable was yet to be conducted and that he was not cooperating with them.
A senior police official had earlier said that the 33-year-old accused was very short-tempered.
Singh was produced before a magistrate court here amid tight security around 1.30 pm.
As they took Singh to the local court in Borivali from the police station, GRP officials used t-shirts and shirts to cover the window panes of their vehicle to shield him from the media glare.
The magistrate barred the media in the courtroom citing security reasons. Lawyers, not associated with the case, were also not allowed to attend the proceedings.
The GRP sought Singh’s custody for 14 days, saying the matter was serious in nature.
The investigating officer said that the medical examination of the accused remains to be conducted.
The incident took place on a moving train and the sequence of events is yet to be investigated and more evidence is to be collected, the police told the court.
The accused is not cooperating with the investigation and giving misleading answers. A thorough investigation is required to find out the reason behind the act of the accused, the police said in the court.
The police said Singh shot dead his senior colleague while being on escort duty on the train and there is a need to find out whether there was any dispute between the two during work hours on the day of the incident.
It is yet to be investigated whether Singh committed the said crime at the behest of anyone, the police said.
After hearing the arguments, the court remanded the accused in the custody of GRP till August 7.
The incident took place on Monday morning on board the moving Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express near Palghar railway station in Maharashtra.
Singh was nabbed with his weapon later while trying to flee after passengers pulled the chain of the train which stopped near Mira Road station (on the Mumbai suburban network) at around 6 AM.
He shot dead RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector Tikaram Meena and another passenger in B5 coach with his automatic weapon.
He then shot dead another passenger in a pantry car and one more passenger in S6 coach next to the pantry car after 5 am.
Two of the deceased passengers have been identified by the Railway police as Abdul Kadarbhai Mohammed Hussain Bhanpurwala (58), a resident of Nalasopara in Palghar and Asgar Abbas Sheikh (48), a resident of Madhubani in Bihar. A senior GRP official on Tuesday identified the third passenger as 43-year-old Syed S.
The Railway Board has set up a five-member committee to probe the incident, according to officials.
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