Mumbai: A 25-year-old cloth shop owner suffered severe stab injuries during his attempt to save a Railway Protection Force (RPF) official from a homeless person who was threatening him with a knife at the Borivali railway platform in the wee hours on Thursday. The trader is undergoing treatment at BYL Nair hospital.
According to the Borivali Government Railway Police (GRP), the trader, Rajesh Dubey, was on his night stroll at 1 am. Since Dubey lives near the railway station in Borivali east, he landed on platform number 10 at Borivali station where he noticed RPF officer, Navneet Kumar Sumkiya, trying to remove homeless people sleeping on the platform from the railway station.
Anil Kadam, senior police inspector of Borivali GRP, said the RPF officer tried to wake up Abdul Ali, (22), who was sleeping on the platform along with a few other men, women and children.
Sumkiya said as he asked the group to leave the railway station, the accused refused to budge and an argument broke out between the two.
“When I tried to reason with Abdul Ali, he began abusing me and the women along with him tried to push me and overpower me. I then struck Ali with my staff but the women did not move back and were trying to assault me when Dubey intervened,” said Sumkiya.
The RPF officer further said that Dubey too tried to reason with the group but they continued abusing him.
When Sumkiya threatened to detain Ali, he removed a pocket knife from his pants and pointed it toward the RPF personnel.
“Dubey’s first response was to help and save Sumkiya. Dubey told him that he would go and get back up for him. As Dubey retreated, Ali moved aside from Sumkiya and started chasing Dubey who was at a distance from the accused,” said Kadam.
Dubey, who sensed something was wrong, turned behind to see that Ali was chasing him with the knife in his hand. Dubey ran to the end of the platform and was about to climb the stairs when Ali caught up with him and stabbed him three times in his abdomen.
“It happened so fast. I could not see the men and thought that they must be arguing. When I saw Ali flee and a wounded Dubey alighting the stairs, I realized that the matter had gone out of hand,” said Sumkiya.
Sumkiya then called up his colleagues who were on other platforms and informed the station master about the incident. “We then rushed Dubey to Shatabdi hospital,” said Sunkiya.
Kadam said that they have registered a case of an attempt to murder against Ali and were trying to locate him. “We questioned his associates and found out that he had been hiding in the slums near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park from where he was arrested on Thursday morning,” said Kadam.