Mumbai: In the trial against a now-dismissed Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable who allegedly gunned down his senior and three passengers on the Jaipur-Mumbai Superfast Express, his colleague testified in the sessions court on Wednesday. He mentioned that he did notice the “abnormal behaviour” of the accused on the day of the incident.
“I worked with accused Chetan Singh 10 to 12 times. I did not notice the accused prior to the incident, picking [up] quarrels or having altercations with colleagues and staff while on duty. The accused did not disclose his mental status to me prior to the incident. I cannot state when I met accused Chetan Singh while coming towards Mumbai, he was not feeling well; however, I found his behaviour a little bit abnormal,” the witness said during his cross-examination by Singh’s advocate, Jaywant Patil.
Singh’s legal team had earlier cited mental illness and delusions of the ghostly world to seek his release.
The witness, Amay Acharya (27), the first to depose in the trial that began on Nov 11, was a constable with RPF at the time of the incident and was subsequently dismissed from service for failure to discharge his duty of providing safety and security to passengers.
On Jul 31 last year, Chetan Singh (34) allegedly gunned down his senior, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Tikaram Meena, in coach B5, followed by a passenger, Kadar Bhanpurwala, in the same coach between Vaitarna and Mira Road. He then went to coach B2, where he allegedly took a passenger, Syed Saifuddin, to the pantry car at gunpoint and shot him. Singh then allegedly shot Asghar Abbas Shaikh in coach S6 and made a communally charged speech standing next to the body.
Acharya alleged that Singh was agitated as he was not allowed to leave duty earlier after complaining of feeling unwell.
Lodged in Akola prison, Singh was produced before Dindoshi sessions court for the hearing via video conferencing. During his examination by the public prosecutor, Sudhir Sapkale, the witness also identified two videos he took of the incident. He said that in the first video, altercations took place between ASI Tikaram Meena, one of the victims, and the accused. “In the second video, I shot two passengers’ reactions to save myself from any future allegations,” the witness said. The deposition will continue on Thursday.