The Borivali Government Railway Police (GRP) scanned nearly 200 CCTV cameras to trace the accused in the fatal stabbing of a college lecturer inside a local train at Malad railway station, arresting him within 12 hours on Sunday morning.
The Borivali Government Railway Police (GRP) scanned nearly 200 CCTV cameras to trace the accused in the fatal stabbing of a college lecturer inside a local train at Malad railway station, arresting him within 12 hours on Sunday morning. The victim, Alok Kumar Singh (33), was stabbed to death following a heated altercation aboard a Borivli-bound slow local train at Malad station on Saturday evening. The accused, identified as Omkar Shinde (27), allegedly lost control after an argument over alighting at the station, police said.
Police believe Shinde, who works in imitation jewellery and metal polishing, used a small pair of tongs to stab Singh at the door of the train coach. The weapon was later discarded while he fled the scene, and police are still searching for it.
Singh was travelling home with his colleague S K Trivedi when the confrontation turned fatal. “We may have scanned footage from close to 200 cameras in the span of a night,” a Borivli GRP officer said. The operation was carried out jointly by the GRP, Railway Protection Force and city police.
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Police pieced together Shinde’s escape route using station cameras. After the stabbing, he sprinted along platform number 1, climbed a foot overbridge and exited the railway premises towards Malad (East) within a minute.
“We wanted to check if the suspect was a frequent railway commuter and started looking through surveillance footage from five days before the incident,” a GRP officer said. Around five to six teams were formed, maintaining detailed logs of dates and timings whenever Shinde was captured entering or exiting railway premises by cameras equipped with facial recognition technology.
"Shinde would typically board the 7.18am Up local from Malad and after work, he took board the 4.16pm local from Charni Road to head home,” said another officer. Cameras outside Malad station showed that he preferred walking home in the evening, but relied on an auto-rickshaw to reach the station each morning.
Police laid a trap at the auto stand outside Malad station around 7am on Sunday. “We were not too sure if he would go to work as it was a Sunday. But we saw him getting off an auto,” said an officer. The team immediately detained Shinde and brought him to the Borivli GRP chowky.
During initial questioning, Shinde claimed he was unaware of Singh’s death. He lives in Kurar village in Malad with his parents and brother, and works at his father’s metal polishing unit in Khetwadi, while also taking up imitation jewellery work independently. Police said his father is a heart patient and no longer works.
On Sunday, Shinde was produced before a holiday court in Borivli, which remanded him to police custody till January 29. Investigators confirmed that he has no prior criminal record.
