RPF constable’s bail plea rejected in train firing case
Mumbai: A Mumbai court on Friday adjourned the bail plea of dismissed Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Chetan Singh till December 8 as the prosecution sought time to file its reply to his application.
He is accused of shooting dead his senior colleague and three passengers in a moving Mumbai-Jaipur Express train on July 31 this year. According to advocate Amit Mishra, the Railway Police requested time to file its reply on the bail plea and the Dindoshi court adjourned it to December 8.
The accused had earlier filed a petition for bail in the Dindoshi Sessions Court of Maharashtra. His bail plea was submitted through lawyers Amit Mishra and Pankaj Ghildiyal with the claim that he was suffering from mental illness. Lawyer Amit Mishra said, “The accused was suffering from mental illness. He lived in an imaginary and delusional world and suffered from neurological and psychological problems.”
The court had directed the prosecution to submit its reply to the petition. Advocate Mishra had said that the hearing is to be held on December 1. However, the police had opposed the bail plea of the dismissed RPF constable.
On July 31, three railway passengers and an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Railway Protection Force were allegedly shot dead by an RPF jawan on board the Mumbai-Jaipur Superfast Express after it crossed Maharashtra’s Palghar station.
The Government Railway Police (GRP) in its charge sheet filed earlier had said that Singh is completely sane and knows what he is doing. In an over 1,000-page charge sheet filed before a local court in suburban Mumbai, the GRP said it relied on the testimony of over 150 witnesses before arriving at this conclusion.
According to GRP officials, they recorded the statements of three such witnesses before the Borivali Metropolitan Magistrate Court under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Apart from the testimony of witnesses, investigators also relied on CCTV footage from inside the train, where Chetan Singh is seen walking between the coaches in search of potential victims.
A high-level committee was formed under the chairmanship of Additional Director General of Railway Protection Force (RPF) to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the Mumbai train firing incident.
