A sessions court has directed the Thane Central Jail authorities to admit dismissed Railway Police constable Chetan Singh, accused of shooting dead three Muslim passengers and his senior officer on a moving train in 2023, to the Regional Mental Hospital in Thane for evaluation and treatment, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday.
In an order delivered on Wednesday, the court directed that the hospital submit fortnightly reports on his condition, including an opinion on whether he is fit to stand trial and capable of conducting his defence.
The direction came during hearings on his second bail application.
On March 2, Singh’s lawyer, Pankaj Ghildiyal, argued that he should be granted bail because of his allegedly unstable mental condition.
The court had asked jail authorities on March 10 to submit a report on Singh’s behaviour in prison by March 25. However, no such report was filed.
Singh, who is in Thane Central Jail, had spent four months at the Regional Mental Hospital in Thane last year after authorities at Akola Central Jail raised concerns about his behaviour. He was let out in June, with the discharge papers describing him as “cooperative, communicative, oriented to time, place and person’’, the newspaper reported.
In December as well, Singh was examined at the Thane prison hospital on the court’s directions, soon after his second bail application was filed. The report described his condition as “stable”, with all his physical parameters normal, The Hindustan Times reported.
Singh’s first bail application, filed soon after his arrest in 2023, had also cited mental instability as grounds for bail. The court, however, rejected it in December 2023, noting that eyewitness accounts and his statements at the time of the incident indicated that he was in a “well-settled position and mind to commit the murder of the persons of the particular community”.
The case
On July 31, 2023, Singh killed Assistant Sub Inspector Tikaram Meena and three Muslim passengers – Abdul Kaderbhai Bhanpurwala, Sadar Mohammed Hussain and Asghar Abbas Sheikh – on the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express.
Witnesses in the case had said that Singh walked through four coaches of the train to select his victims and asked them for their names before killing them.
After one of the Muslim victim’s body fell to the floor, Singh had asked the rest of the passengers in the coach to record a video as he made a speech in which he hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath and, presumably, either Uddhav Thackeray or Raj Thackeray.
“If you want to vote, if you want to live in India, then I say Modi and Yogi, these are the two and your Thackeray,” he declared.
Singh was arrested and subsequently booked under the Indian Penal Code for murder as well as under the Arms Act. A week later, the police added charges of kidnapping and promoting enmity on grounds of religion against him.
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