New Delhi [India]: RPF constable Chetan Singh Chaudhary, who shot 4 people, including his senior officer, dead with his service weapon on board the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express on July 31, is completely sane and was aware of what he was doing, chargesheet filed by Government Railway Police (GRP) in the matter states.
In the chargesheet, which is over 1,000 pages long and was filed before a local court in the Mumbai suburbs, the GRP stated that it relied on the depositions of over 150 witnesses before coming to this conclusion.
According to the GRP officers, they recorded the statements of three of such witnesses before the Borivali Metropolitan Magistrate court under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
In addition to the witness testimonies, the investigators also relied on the CCTV footage from inside the train where Chetan Singh is seen moving between compartments, looking for potential victims.
Four railway passengers, including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Railway Protection Force, were shot dead by the RPF jawan, who opened fire onboard the Mumbai-Jaipur Superfast Express after it crossed Palghar Station in Maharashtra.
Sharing details of the incident, Chief PRO, Western Railway, Sumit Thakur said earlier, “In an unfortunate incident in Jaipur-Mumbai Superfast Express, a police constable shot at his colleague escort in charge ASI Tika Ram. The reason for this is not established yet. It is regretted that ASI Tika Ram and three other civilians died. The constable was arrested by RPF/Bhayandar.”
“He (RPF constable, Chetan Kumar) wasn’t feeling well and lost his calm. There was no argument,” he added.
RPF officials said that the incident took place in the B5 coach of the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express (Train number 12956).
“It was reported on train no 12956 at 5.23 on 31.7.23 that there had been a firing in B5 coach. It was confirmed that CT Chetan on escort duty had fired on the escort in charge ASI Tika Ram. The train has arrived at BVI and, as per advance information, casualties of 3 civilians have also been reported, in addition to ASI,” the RPF said in a statement earlier.
A high-level committee headed by the Additional Director GTeral of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) was constituted to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the Mumbai train firing incident, Western Railway said.
