MUMBAI: It was 40 minutes of terror for passengers of the Jaipur-Mumbai Superfast Express on early Monday as RPF constable Chetan Singh went around coaches, firing from his automatic rifle. In all, he discharged 12 of the 20 bullets in it.

Officials said Singh was “hot-headed and appeared to have lost his cool”. The trigger for the incident is still being investigated as are reports of him suffering a “mental health breakdown”.

A couple of hours earlier, Singh reportedly got into a scrap with some passengers at Surat.
Singh and his colleagues – constables Narendra Parmar and Amey Acharya, and assistant sub-inspector Tikaram Meena – had boarded the train at Surat as an escort team. The previous day, they had travelled from Mumbai as the escort for the Dadar-Porbandar Saurashtra Express. On the return trip, they were to stay on board till Mumbai Central. Meena, 57, headed the team.

When the train reached Valsad, Singh complained of uneasiness and insisted on getting off. His colleagues asked him to rest and took away his weapon, the AR-M1, an assault rifle which is a modified version of the AK-47. As he continued to argue with Meena on wanting to get off, a message was sent to the control room to send another constable to relieve him. However, a while later, Singh said he was feeling better and wanted to resume duty. Constable Acharya has told the police that Singh had attacked him on the train when he refused to return his rifle. Later, Acharya saw Singh remove the safety catch on the rifle. He said he had tried to calm him down.

Acharya and the other constable went off to patrol other sections of the train while Meena and Singh were in coach B5. At 5.15am, as the train neared Vaitarna station, Singh pumped four bullets into Meena. In the same compartment, he also gunned down Kadar Bhanpurwala (62) who was getting ready to alight at Borivali.

For the next 40 minutes or so, Singh strutted across several coaches with the weapon. He crossed five bogies to reach the pantry car, where he killed a second passenger – whom the FIR does not name – before moving on to S6, where he shot dead Asghar Abbas Ali (48). The victims were either gunned down in their seats or lay dead in the passage. Many others tried to hide as the constable fired away. Some bullets pierced the train’s windowpanes. A passenger later told mediapersons that he woke up hearing the noise and found a body lying in a pool of blood.
During this time, Singh stood in the aisle next to the body of a victim and spoke to passengers, somewhat incoherently, about “Pakistan”, “media coverage”, and domestic politics. His remarks were recorded on camera.

In the meantime, the escort team informed the control room about the incident. Around 5.55am, a passenger pulled the alarm chain and the train halted close to Mira Road station. Singh jumped out with his rifle. GRP personnel, who had been alerted, started to chase him. “He threatened to shoot them, but they did not give up,” said BJP MLA Manisha Chaudhary, who interacted with the investigators. As Singh ran into the mangroves adjoining the railway line, he dropped his rifle. The police team managed to catch up with him when he turned back to pick up the weapon. Under arrest at the Borivali GRP chowky on Monday, Singh shouted “Inquilab Zindabad”.
A five-member panel has been set up by the railway board to conduct a probe.