Knife used for Mumbai train stabbing bought online same day, thrown after attack: Police

Mumbai: Roshan Suvarna, who allegedly stabbed Mayank Lohar to death on Tuesday, told investigators that he had disposed of the murder weapon—a knife—around the railway premises after the crime.

Police have searched the area in and outside Borivli West station, including subways, and have gone through CCTV footage but haven’t yet found the knife.Suvarna was produced before a magistrate court in Borivli on Thursday and remanded into police custody.According to police, Suvarna had bought the knife from an e-commerce platform on the day of the attack and had placed it in his bag to hand it over to a friend. The knife was in a package and Suvarna removed the packaging before the attack.

Witnesses told police they were terrified after seeing blood splattered all over the compartment. They said things happened very quickly and they were too numb to react.In court, GRP senior inspector Dattatreya Khuperkar, who is also the investigating officer of the case, said the severity of the injuries inflicted on Lohar showed that Suvarna had the intention to cause harm. Police also said they need to probe Suvarna’s antecedents, conduct a search at his house and find out whether he was acquainted with Lohar.

Suvarna’s advocates, Surendra Landge and Azad Gupta, told the court that the murder was not premeditated and was a result of an argument over rainwater entering the coach. His advocates told mediapersons that Suvarna was manhandled by a few passengers, which reportedly included Lohar, leaving him with an injury near his eye.Suvarna and Lohar were travelling at the door of a Nalasopara-bound fast local when they had an altercation over shutting the door to keep rainwater out between 10.45pm and 11pm on Tuesday. After commuters separated the two and sent them to different exits, Suvarna allegedly came after Lohar and knifed him three to four times in his chest and abdomen. He hopped off the coach at Borivli station before the train halted and was arrested from Panvel on Wednesday.