By Jasvinder Sidhu

New Delhi: "It wasn't just the killing of people from a particular community but a massacre of humanity," said Fazulrahman Shaikh, government public prosecutor and prosecution lawyer while discussing the act of Railway Police Force (RPF) constable Chetan Singh Chaudhary aboard a Jaipur-Mumbai train on July 31 last year.      

"We must remember that Chaudhary killed four innocent persons that day. Three were Muslims, and the fourth one was his officer, a Hindu. So, for me, this is not the killing of people from a particular community but a massacre of humanity," he told this writer.

Constable Chaudhary first killed his senior, ASI Tikaram Meena, and then gunned down three passengers based on their Muslim identity. “This was an inhuman act, and I feel this was not against a particular community. For me, a human being killed another human being. We need to find out from where and how this hate has been generated,” added Shaikh.

However, according to the 1203-page chargesheet filed by the Railway Police in Borivali Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Chaudhary was sane and aware  while killing his four victims. 

Containing the testimony of 150 witnesses, the chargesheet mentions that among the passengers Chaudhary deliberately selected the three Muslims based on their dress, skull caps, and beards and pumped bullets into them. 

During the hearing, defence lawyers argued that Chaudhary had a history of mental illness. But the prosecutor demolished that argument with pieces of evidence. “First of all, not even the defence asked for a psychiatrist evaluation of Chaudhary. Secondly, there are viral videos in which he calmly says why these people should have died. He was in full senses and knew what he was doing,” Shaikh said.

Along with Shaikh, advocate Karim Pathan also represents the victims through the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR).

According to the chargesheet, the investigation team obtained the footage captured by the CCTV cameras on the train in which Chaudhary was roaming inside various compartments in search of his potential victims. One of the videos went viral on social media in which he was standing next to the bodies of Muslim victims and murmuring: “Modi, Yogi, he theek karengay inko (Only Modi-Yogi can keep them in their place).”

“The three passengers, Abdul Kadar Mohamed Hussain Bhanpurawala, Sayyad Saifuddin, and Asgar Abbas Shaikh, were from different states and travelling in different coaches.” Shaikh said. “Chaudhary searched and gunned them down."