On early hours of Thursday, in a crowded general compartment of the Mumbai-Latur-Beed Express, a 26-year-old man was beaten to death by 13 ticketless travellers, including seven women, in a quarrel over seat-sharing.
The incident is said to have taken place between Pune and Daund railway stations. The Government Railway Police (GRP) in Daund later detained 12 people, including the seven women and a minor boy.
Senior inspector Sureshsingh Gaud of the GRP, Pune, said, “The 12 detained people are being brought back to Pune.”
Police said victim Sagar Janardan Markad, an autorickshaw driver from Kalyan in Thane district, was travelling with his wife, Jyoti, his mother and two-year-old daughter to Kurduwadi to attend the funeral of Jyoti’s relative.
The Markad family comes from Markadwada in Madha tehsil of Solapur district.
Around 12.45 am, they boarded the crowded general coach of the Mumbai-Latur-Beed Express, which stops at Kurduwadi.
They had to stand in the coach as there was barely any space to sit, police said.
Jyoti when carrying her sleeping daughter in her arms, Sagar requested a woman occupying a seat near the entrance of the coach to make some space for his wife. The woman picked up an altercation with him and started verbally abusing him, the police said.
Jyoti told the police that she and her mother-in-law tried in vain to stop the assault on Sagar, who had collapsed on the floor of the coach. In desperation, she pulled the chain thrice to stop the train. However, the train stopped for a while but began moving again, she said.
A team of the Daund railway police went inside the coach to look into the matter.
The train halted at Daund station and rushed Sagar to a private hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead.
The Daund GRP has registered a case under sections 302 (murder), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 323 (causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and section 137 (ticketless travel) of the Indian Railways Act.
