An Indian railway protection force (RPF) constable shot dead on Monday three Muslim passengers and a colleague onboard a Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express train near the Palghar railway station in Maharashtra, The Indian Express reported.
The accused Constable Chetan Singh shot dead passengers Abdul Qadirbhai Mohammed Hussain Bhanpurwala (48), Akhtar Abbas Ali (48) and Sadar Mohammed Hussain and RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector Tika Ram Meena.
“… They operated from Pakistan. And the media is showing this coverage. They all know who they are and what they are doing. If you want to vote, if you want to stay in India, I say Modi and Yogi. These two are…,” he is heard saying in a video recorded by another passenger in which he is standing right beside one of the bodies.
The firing took place around 5am after the train left Vapi Railway Station and was nearing Vaitarna Railway Station, around two hours from Mumbai.
Singh pulled the alarm chain and jumped off the train near the Dahisar Station in suburban Mumbai to flee the scene after shooting dead the four.
He was caught by the police and taken to Mira Road police station. The constable has been arrested after he surrendered to the police after firing gunshots, while the police seized his weapon.
The Indian authorities have told the media that the accused of the gruesome act “is suffering from mental health” issues.
“Constable Chetan Singh is a short-tempered person and suffering from mental health issues. He had just returned from leave,” P C Sinha, the inspector general-cum-principal chief security commissioner of the Western Railway, told reporters.
While an ex-gratia of 1.5 million Indian rupees will be given to the heirs of deceased ASI Meena from the Railway Suraksha Kalyan Nidhi (fund), apart from funeral expenses of 20,000 Indian rupees.
Indian journalist Rana Ayyub, who has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, blamed the anti- Muslim hate speech by leaders of the ruling BJP for the attack.
“This one is also on the blood thirsty news anchors demonising an entire community, the families of the killed Muslims seem not important as they have not been talked about by the country’s authorities,” she tweeted.
