Mumbai local train stabbing: Suspect arrested as passenger safety remains a question after second June incident

Mumbai Police on Wednesday arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of a youth in a moving local train during an altercation. The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Sachin Ramesh Suvarna, was arrested following a massive manhunt that involved scanning footage from nearly 400 CCTV cameras.

The victim, 22-year-old Mayank Lohar, was stabbed in a first-class compartment between Andheri and Borivali railway stations in the western suburbs on Tuesday after an argument over closing the door amid the rain.

Stabbing through a closing train door

It is not yet clear who among the victims and suspects wanted the doors to remain open and who objected.

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According to the police, Lohar and Suvarna got into an argument at Churchgate-Nallasopara local fast station when she was entering Andheri station at 10.42 pm. During the argument, Suvarna, who works at the Sahar Cargo complex at the Mumbai airport, pulled out a ‘satta’ (a sharp weapon) from his property and allegedly stabbed Lohar in the abdomen and chest.

The victim, who suffered multiple stab wounds, collapsed and Suvarna jumped off the train at Borivali station before it stopped and fled.

How the suspect was arrested

Suvarna, a resident of Mira Road, went home after the murder and told his father that he had an argument in a local train. According to the police, around midnight on Tuesday, fearing arrest, he left his house and planned to leave Mumbai.

He was tracked down after investigators scanned footage from over 400 CCTV cameras installed at Borivali, Andheri, Mira Road and Nallasopara railway stations as well as adjacent entry and exit points of the city.

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“With the help of technical intelligence and other inputs, the assailant was identified from the footage and traced to Panvel,” a senior railway police official told PTI.

The weapon used in the crime is yet to be found, he said, adding that Suvarna is being interrogated.

Second sting this month

This was the second stabbing incident in a local train in Mumbai this month. On June 12, Satish Kumar Bolamani Pathak, a resident of Masjid Bunder, Mumbai, was stabbed in a Khopoli-bound train from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

The 26-year-old victim was stabbed and attacked by two men and stabbed after a dispute over a seat.

Don’t malign local train in Mumbai: Minister

Meanwhile, Maharashtra state minister Yogesh Kadam on Wednesday urged people not to judge Mumbai’s entire suburban rail network on the basis of a single crime.

“According action will be taken against whoever assaulted the passenger and was arrested. The local train network is the lifeline of Mumbai. We cannot malign the entire Mumbai local train system just because of one isolated incident, nor would it be right to question its overall safety. It is wrong to generalize the entire network based on a mistake or crimes that one individual tried to commit,” Kadam said.